Nightlife: West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnaval

It’s Halloween. yay. Yah so I’m not a big Halloween person, never have been. But I haven’t been able to fight it in LA, being Halloween in LA is like the official holiday of the city (hah) (besides the fact that I am lame and don’t have a costume) I’m the type of person that has to go all out or nothing and I just didn’t have the time or the energy to be creative this year. Besides, I’ve already been to about 5 parties and with just one to go, I’m over it. But then again, the one that’s left is the biggest.

Photo by SudsyFist.

The 19th annual West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnival is tonight, 6PM til Midnight. If you don’t know what that is, go to that link above and watch the video.

Just imagine 450,000 people on Santa Monica Blvd in costumes with multiple stages with DJs spinning, laser lights, nudity, drag queens, and probably just about everything else in between. It’s one of the biggest Halloween parties in the world. I imagine it something like Key West’s Fantasy Fest but with a lot more people.

I’ve never been, seeing that this is my first year in LA, so I can’t say or even imagine what it’s going to be like. But from what I’ve been reading in papers and from bloggers it’s going to be insane.

And don’t forget about the costume contest…

From about.com:

The world-famous costume party on Santa Monica Boulevard Halloween night is the largest adult outdoor Halloween event in the world. The WeHo Carnaval is second only to the Rose Parade in attracting visitors to attend a Southern California event. An estimated half a million people will participate or come to watch the ghouls and goblins party. Some of the wildest costumes and funniest antics can be seen on Halloween night while strolling along Santa Monica Boulevard which will be closed to traffic during this special celebration.
Finals for the annual Halloween carnaval costume contest will be held on the main stage at the Carnaval 10PM on Hallowen night.

There will be 20 finalist bracelets given out throughout the evening. The finalists will then compete in the grand prize competition on the main stage 10PM. To get one of the bracelets you must be in costume and be on the blvd between 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm, and of course able to participate in the contest beginning at 10 pm. Finalist bracelets will be given out by select Halloween Crew Members based on originality, creativity, and fabulousness. Cash prizes will be awarded to top winners.

It’s horrible that it’s on a Tuesday this year. Sucks for all us 9-5ers that have to get up the next morning. Oh, and what is with LA and the whole 2AM call? And midnight? Party ending at midnight? I’m from south Florida, and in Miami Beach, they have 24 hour liquor licenses which means parties start at midnight! Non of this kick everybody out at 2AM while they are still drunk so they can get into their huge SUVs and drive home crap.

That’s my bitch of the day. I’ll write a follow up blog about how Weho was.

And for anyone not brave enough to face the crowds, you can enjoy it live via webcam with your host Gaygod at Stickam.com.

Check out all the Flickr photos from last year.

ciao !

Food: Swan Thai & Wat Thai Temple Market

Sorry I haven’t written much, I’ve been so busy with everything.

Last weekend I had major cravings for Thai food, so I decided to make a whole thai weekend out of it. It was a crazy weekend of thai food and hollywood hills Halloween house parties.

Saturday afternoon, I stopped by Swan Thai in North Hollywood for dinner with a friend. I had come across several LA food blogs that were raving about it so I decided to give it a try. See Eating LA’s review, Daily Gluttony’s, Low End Restaurant’s,

Swan is right off the 170 on Sherman Way. It’s a little hard to see from the main road but pretty easy to get to. Ok, no beating around the bush; this place was great. It was some of the best thai food I’ve ever had. And the prices are fantastic. Most entrees are between $6 and $7 and they have a small plates menu where everything is $2-$3. (but if you want the small menu, at least for dinner, you have to ask for it. But I didn’t order anything from it though because it only had around 10 items, which made me feel limited when I had this other huge menu in front of me)

Sherman Way in North Hollywood I’ve heard is a very good for finding good and cheap ethnic foods. Daily Gluttony has ventured into several restaurants up there. Go read about her journeys.

My friend and I went for a light dinner, but after seeing the menu our eyes got bigger than out stomachs. We ordered two appetizers, and two entrees; Chicken Kabobs with Peanut Sauce, fish cakes made with a red curry paste, Pad Thai, and I had a noodle dish with chicken, and tomatoes. I didn’t know what to order, so I asked our waitress to order for me. I have no idea what I got but it was great.

The menu is about 10 pages long filled top to bottom. There’s a front section with nothing but pictures and then the back with the text, half in English, half in Thai. You know a place is going to be good when you walk in and see nothing but Thai families and a whiteboard with the specials only in Thai.

Everything was good. I ordered my dish medium spicy and it was perfect. It wasn’t too hot but it had that bang without destroying the flavor. The Pad Thai was one of the best ones I’ve ever had. And the appetizers were also very good.

The regular plates have good portions and the service was good. It certainly doesn’t have much of a atmosphere but if you’re in the mood for good and cheap thai food, this is the place to go. The music they were playing was pretty cool though. Surprisingly it was old American standards from Elvis to Dolly Parton. Oh and they have bobas!

My review totally sucks! Go to one of the food blogs and read their reviews.

And here is a take out review: Food Universe

Swan Restaurant

12728 Sherman Way

North Hollywood

(818) 764-1892

Sunday afternoon, my sister and I ventured to Wat Thai Temple just up the road from Swan. I’ve been wanting to go since I moved to LA. It’s the largest Thai buddhist temple in the country and every weekend from 10-6pm they have a big outdoor food market. Again, North Hollywood, great cheap Thai food… totally something you have to try.

My sister and I spent three hours there just eating and chatting while listening to the monks’ chants and taking in all of the wonderful smells from all the booths. Everything is between $1-$3 and they are good portions. It’s one of those things where you just want to try everything but you can’t.

Read mmm-yoso!!!’s review for all the info. He gives a good run down of how things work and what to try.

There’s parking there and it’s free, and there’s also street parking. Also, bring cash to buy tokens. They only accept tokens at the booths that you get up front. I got $10 worth and that was enough for two items, thai tea, and dessert.

Wat Thai Temple
8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave
North Hollywood
(818) 997-9657
Weekends only

And for food Thai in LA, here’s a collection of some of the best: http://lowendrestaurants.blogspot.com/2004/11/thai.html

Nightlife: Bar Marmont

As a gay guy in Los Angeles, sadly I tend to stick to gay bars and clubs. Now as you can imagine, that can get pretty boring. And the word ‘boring’ just doesn’t fit into my mantra. So as this blog as my witness, I vow to get out to more diverse crowds (or less diverse however you look at it) and experience everything there is to experience.

*I’m making it a goal of mine in the next several months to get around to all of the LA ‘hotspots’ just to see what they are really like and I’ll blog a bit about them.

I grabbed a friend and his straight recently single girlfriend and headed out on a Wednesday night to see what was going on. I had read on upcoming.org about the Hollywood Canteen having a new event on Wednesdays called ‘Swank’. (click on the link for the flyer) It sounded interesting and the space looked cool, along with the complimentary sushi buffet all made it look very attractive. But upon actually going there, well ehh ‘not so much’.

Nobody was there. Granted we were there when it opened, nobody even showed up 45 minutes after opening. Also there was no music. none. Maybe it got going later, who knows. I mean they were still cleaning the place when they opened. Now that’s just tacky. That and the non advertised $10 cover that I refused to pay.

The Hollywood Canteen is a interesting place though. It’s right off theater row just south of Santa Monica. It has a nice outdoor patio and an old air-stream trailer from the 40’s that they call the ‘love den’. It would be a nice space if you could get the right crowd. We didn’t even have a drink, we left and headed back to West Hollywood.


The entrance to Hyde

My friend suggested we try Hyde Lounge on Sunset from nightlife impresarios Sam Nazarian and Brent Bolthouse. It’s the new a-list very exclusive reservations or guest list only type place. While I really tend to avoid these places, I totally was up for it. Being a Wednesday night and still being early, we thought we would have no problem getting in. But without a reservation, needless to say, we were turned away at the door. I mean the Paparazzi wasn’t even there yet! So for now, I can’t say if this place is or is not everything it’s cracked up to be. But for now, I’ll say nothing.

So off we went again right down the street to Bar Marmont, the Chateau Marmont’s sexy, sinister sister. After passing Dustin Hoffman on the way in, we were greeted to a surprisingly friendly doorman compared to Hyde down the street and were promptly sat at a table.

New type of post: Interesting Links

When I do have time, I admit, I am a avid websurfer. I find all these amazing sites… I said I wasn’t going to post any of them because this isn’t that type of blog… but I’m going to start now. Just a few… =)

The Ghetto Gourmet

From Eating LA:

Do you ever wish that some really cool folks had invited you for a three course meal at their happening pad, and all you had to do was bring a bottle of wine? Well, the Bay Area’s Ghetto Gourmet is returning to L.A. next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurday for three more dinners in Koreatown and the Hollywood Hills. Last time it was a really unique experience with entertainment, new friends and good food. Of course, your friends won’t make you pay, but then you’d have to eat their cooking instead of a professional chef’s food, so there’s that…

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Upcoming.org

Upcoming.org is this great site that is all about events and things going on wherever you are. People go on and add events and then you can browse what’s going on when and where and add events you want to attend or watch and get more information about them. You can create groups, friends, RSS feeds of your events, one click and all your events are put into your iCal that automatically updates. It’s brilliant!

This is my event page: http://upcoming.org/user/82691/

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Guerrilla Gay Bar

Once a month, Guerrilla Gay Bar takes over the coolest straight bars in town they can find, for one night only. Think flashmob meets the French Revolution meets Kylie. And you’re invited, as long as you’re gay, and game.

Trick is, they don’t announce their shindig’s digs until the day of the party. So, the only way to know where to go for the party is to sign up for their email list.

Club Party Monster

James St. James is in town… living here I think… throwing parties. Interesting thought no?

“Running with Scissors” is playing. Going to try and see it tonight.

Also, opening later this month, “Perfume” … is amazing. Go look at the trailer. It’s been out in Germany for a while but opens in this US mid-November. I saw it a while ago… really… epic. Tom Tykwer the director, composer, producer, lead actor, is amazing. He has to be one of the most talented people in the business today. Just nobody knows!

“Fast Food Nation” is another cool one to keep an eye out for in November.

Fridays off the 405 at the Getty

Where were you Friday afternoon at 6:00PM? If you work a general 9-5 type job, my guess would be right about… there.

That picture was from my vantage point atop the Getty Center watching the sun set over the Pacific enjoying live music and a martini while feeling sorry for all of those below me inching their way home on the 405.

Food: Amelia’s Espresso & Panini

Please take a look at my side links. I’ve added a load of food blogs for your reading pleasure. I spent hours the other day going through LA’s food blogs and made links for some that I liked.

This got me thinking about my blog and food. I love good food. I love going out to dinner with friends. I miss that. I go out to eat maybe once a week, or maybe a few business lunches a week… you know.

While I have been to many good LA restaurants, one that I haven’t read about is one of my favorite places for lunch: Amelia’s Espresso & Panini in Santa Monica.

When I first moved to LA, I got a apartment in Santa Monica right off Main Street and this is one of the places I often visited for lunch. It’s very cute with the best panini I’ve had in LA.

Lunching at Amelia’s is a memorable experience. Recently opened in the enclave of Santa Monica’s Main Street, patrons are greeted like old friends while delighting the palate with authentic Italian fare. The family, combine their talents to serve Italian coffee, pastries, desserts and a sumptuous menu of hot and cold panini sandwiches optionally adorned with peppers on ciabatta, country white or baguette. A wonderful treat in the atmosphere of a lively Italian bistro where music and singing is featured on some Sundays.

Amelia’s is small, maybe seating 12, but outside there are several tables on the sidewalk. Order at the counter and Amelia will bring you your food. I usually got the Turkey Panini with roasted peppers, fontina, and pesto and it comes with a large side of baby greens and a biscotti. Combine that with a double espresso and wow.

They also have a nice selection of deserts, including Gelato. They have made to order salads, and even breakfast.

On some Wednesdays, they have live jazz from 6 to 8, but usually they close at 4PM. That’s the only thing I hate about this place is that I can never make it from my office in Hollywood before they close.

Normal hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 6:30AM-4:00PM, and Sunday from 11-4PM.

I’ll try and go this weekend and grab some pictures. Really you HAVE to try this place.

Amelia’s Espresso & Panini
2645 Main St
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 396-9095

And while I’m on the Santa Monica kick, the best farmers’ market in LA I think is for sure the one on Main St. & Ocean Park every Sunday. It’s all organic and about 50/50 ready to eat vendors mixed with fresh produce. Check it out HERE.

It’s great. People old and young just kind of hang around, lay on the lawn, relax… reading a book. Here’s a good picture of the vibe (click).

A restaurant review I’ve recently found that I can’t agree with more:

Best of LA’s Roys Review

Art: Getty, KCRW, LACMA

At any given time in Los Angeles, there are exactly 10,741 things to do. Now weeding through this is a pain in the you know where. I was struck last night by just how many things LA.com lists to do every day of the week in their Club Nights Guide. LA.com is one of the best LA guides.

One thing beside LA.com that is totally essential in LA is KCRW.

KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College, is Southern California’s leading National Public Radio affiliate, featuring an eclectic mix of music, news, information and cultural programming. The station boasts one of the nation’s largest arrays of locally- produced, nationally-distributed talk program content. KCRW.com extends the station’s profile globally, with three streams featuring web-exclusive content: KCRWMusic.com, KCRWWorldnews.com, and the live station simulcast, as well as an extensive list of podcasts. The non-commercial broadcast signal reaches 550,000 listeners weekly and is supported by 55,000 member/subscribers.

KCRW is a recognized tastemaker for new music from around the world, with trendsetting hosts such as Music Director Nic Harcourt, who features live in-studio sessions and interviews with established and emerging artists on Morning Becomes Eclectic and the nationally syndicated Sounds Eclectic; music supervisor and electronica music champion Jason Bentley (The Matrix series) with Metropolis; indie and alternative rock on The Open Road with music supervisor Gary Calamar (Six Feet Under). Other programs include nu-soul and funk on Chocolate City with Garth Trinidad; Nocturna with Raul Campos features dance rhythms and Latin beats;  New Ground with Chris Douridas spotlights the latest singer-songwriters and music in all genres; and more.

Not only is KCRW amazing as far as programming with such shows as Morning Becomes Eclectic with legend Nic Harcourt, which often features live in studio performances from artists around the world, but they have tons of amazing programing all hours of the day that does include NPR news.

They are a base for the arts in LA, especially the music scene. They sponsor endless numbers of concerts with Nic himself often introducing bands at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl.

Also, if you become a member, you get to be apart of their ticket giveaways. They give free concert tickets to the events they sponsor only to members on a first come first serve basis. I just grabbed a pair of tickets to see The Fiery Furnaces a few minutes ago. Saved me $50. Become a member if you can give any amount. It doesn’t take much to join and you get tons of free CDs they make from in studios guest performances along with Fringe Benefits to tons of LA businesses and entries into their contests for things like iPods, Apple Laptops, even Hybrid Lexus SUVs.

Check out their website and take a listen. You’ll be hooked really fast. It’s 89.9FM in LA and for other areas surrounding LA, check the wiki link at the bottom of the blog.

Things going on this week:

Fridays off the 405 at the Getty Center.

Enjoy music and evening views of the city, tour the galleries, and revel in the end of the workweek in a casual and spontaneous atmosphere at our monthly Fridays Off the 405 series, a music happening curated by culture magazine Flavorpill.

Fridays Off the 405 features free live music and a cash bar from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The galleries will be open until 9:00 p.m. as well so you can admire the atmospheric landscapes in From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden and travel back to the ’70s and ’80s with the photographs in Public Faces/Private Spaces: Recent Acquisitions.

October 20: Home Video and Fauna Flash

Date: Friday, October 20, 2006
Time: 6:00–9:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Museum Courtyard
Admission: Free; no reservations required.

I’ve been wanting to check out a Friday off the 405 all summer. I’m going so going this Friday. The views from up there are amazing. It’s a great escape and gets you above the LA smog line.

Getty Center looking south… Pacific is to the right.

The Getty looking west.

Click Here to see a view of downtown LA from the Getty. and Here to view the 405 from the Getty.

It’s really a great place. Admission is free, just pay $8 for parking. They often have free concerts and films in the theater they have there. (tickets through their website) They also have several restaurants there from a white table cloth one that overlooks the Pacific to lunch counter grab something to go type places. There’s tons of outdoor seating and gardens. They also have a HUGE research center for scholars with texts from all over the world. There’s also the Malibu Getty villa, but that’s another blog.

Also just to throw this in while I’m talking about museums, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s current exhibit is “Breaking the Mode” which features Contemporary Fashion from the Permanent Collection. I’ve heard it’s grand just another thing on my list of things to do. Runs until Jan 7, 2007.

Links:

KCRW on Wikipedia
The Getty Center
The Getty on Wiki

PS. John Cameron Mitchell is on the cover of LA Weekly this week with his film Shortbus! Get a copy! http://laweekly.com/

Film: The New Beverly Cinema

In the mood for a double feature? For more than thirty years the New Beverly Cinema has been running months- and years-old movies for appreciative crowds. Drawing on LA’s understandably large cinema community, the theater books it’s entire calendar based on requests. Showing fifteen double features a month, there are usually three or four showings of each movie over a two-day engagement. Films range from recent independents to decades-old classics.

The New Beverly generally runs three new double bills every week. It is a fully independent theatre and is not part of a larger chain. All films are presented in 35mm with Dolby stereo when applicable. Like any commercial theatrical venue, the New Beverly rents the prints it plays from the major and independent studios and distributors (Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros., Miramax, Rialto, Kino, etc.). Fewer titles are available than in the heyday of revival theatres, but the prints in circulation have generally been of excellent quality, especially in the last few years. Because the New Beverly is still a “change-over” house that does not utilize film platters, it often exhibits archival or new prints.

The Beverly is the only revival art house that survived the saturation of similar theaters in the 1970s. For years, the Beverly was a – what else? – a gay porno house. This is the L.A. theater for people who truly love movies. While it’s not the cleanest inside (and it could use some new marquee letters outside), the theater books many films on a thematic basis.

From CitySearch:

The New Beverly enjoys such a cult following because of its clever double bills. Ever wanted to see “The Seven Samurai” paired with “The Magnificent Seven”? How about “Eraserhead” and “The Elephant Man?” “The 400 Blows” and “Jules and Jim?” You can get it here.

Ticket prices are $7 for the double feature and the concessions are cheap. $1.50 gets you a bottle water or $1.50 for a frozen Snickers bar. If you want to do dinner and a movie…

The El Coyote restaurant is located about 1/4 mile West of the Beverly. For a good evening, go to the restaurant around 6:00 (before the Beverly program begins at 7:30). A trip to El Coyote is enough to make you change your religion as well as political affiliation! The interior looks as though several countries engaged in civil war – and everybody lost! The combination plates look as though someone held up a dish, and the cook threw the food onto the plate with a shovel! Sharon Tate and friends ate at El Coyote on the evening of their murders, and many customers are “actors” who talk loudly about their craft but work graveyards at Denny’s. An evening at El Coyote and the Beverly will give you cocktail-party conversation for years!

Tonight and tomorrow they are playing, “An Inconvenient Truth” at 7:30, and “Who Killed the Electric Car?” at 9:30.

October 22-23 they are running “The Godfather” parts 1 and 2 back to back. That makes me happy.

New Beverly Cinema
7165 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90036
(323) 938-4038
$7.00/$6.00 Students/$4.00 Seniors & Children

Nightlife: Falcon

I keep on thinking to myself that I’m really a horrid subject to actually write this blog. While I love getting out and exploring new places, the fact of the matter is that I don’t have much of a life in LA. I just moved here six months ago and I really only have one LA friend. I go out and meet a lot of people, but I find that few people stick here. It’s hard to meet good people in LA. But enough of my whining.

When I do go out, being the big homo that I am, I usually stick to gay clubs or gay nights at bars. So I don’t find that reviewing all of weho particularly makes sense mainly due to the fact that most of weho doesn’t read. (haha) Let alone blogs about LA Culture. And the whole I’d be talking to 10% of you.

But I do have one place that I’ve been going to now for a few months that I just love: Falcon.

From LA.com:

Falcon is like the best living room ever: There are soft leather couches, white shag carpets, touches of glossy dark wood and an entire wall that opens up to a large sunken patio with fireplaces. Like so many other Hollywood hotspots, the scene is more dinner-friendly early in the evening. Around 11pm, when the restaurant stops serving dinner and the DJ starts spinning, the crowds thicken and the vibe gets rather lusty. Club nights like Tuesday’s gay night, Beige, and promoter Mundial’s Brazilian Thursday parties bring hordes of pretty young things. But eating at Falcon isn’t just a way to skip the line to get in. Standouts include the lobster chopped salad—with poached tail and claw meat, corn shaved from the cob and homemade buttermilk dressing (tastes like summer!)—and the filet mignon with potato gratin and a wild mushroom ragu. Small plates like Maryland crab cakes with grilled Asian pear satisfy those feeling nosh-y. —Lesley Balla

I always go on Tuesday nights for Beige. It’s always crowded and it’s a nice crowd. It’s not so much your typical weho guys but more of a mix of successful 20 somethings and the occasional gay celeb. I often see funny man Bruce Vilanch there and Randy Harrison has dropped by.

The drinks and bartenders are great. The music isn’t bad although I think it’s a bit too loud sometimes for good conversation. There’s a small dance floor and DJ booth on one side and they do offer table service. And of course they are also a restaurant, a pretty good one in fact, but I would recommend getting their early if you want to eat.

There’s also a beautiful sunken courtyard in front that lets you dine under the stars.

From LA.com: Tip: Falcon is yet another place that deems itself cool enough to not have a sign. It’s right across from the Saharan Motel, whose kitschy sign is visible miles away.

And also, John Corbett, that guy from Sex and the City often plays his acoustic guitar here on Mondays. He’s an investor.

Falcon
7213 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, 90046
(323) 850-5350

Music: The Jazz Bakery

After a weekend of seeing Shortbus two more times, I thought it was about time for a change so Monday night, I went in search of jazz.

I checked out the Jazz Bakery in Culver City; LA’s only non-profit jazz venue going 7 nights a week featuring local and touring artists from all over the world. I had seen it quite a few times on Goldstar Events for half price tickets so I wanted to give it a try. I love good jazz, especially live, but I haven’t gotten out much and checked out the LA scene.

From LA Weekly:

The Jazz Bakery is “the most prestigious jazz space in Los Angeles: a serious, no-frills, seven-nights-a-week nonprofit listening room of international renown, where everybody who’s anybody has played; where iconic musicians turn up as regularly in the audience as on the bandstand; where just ascending the stage is a sure sign that you’ve made it into the music’s highest ranks.” (from Brandt Reiter, LA Weekly)

I arrived around 8:30PM because I had come directly from work even though my ticket wasn’t until the 9:30 show. I parked right outside and walked in to a dark quiet store front. It didn’t look like a jazz club, and I quickly found out that it really wasn’t quite the club atmosphere I was expecting either. People triple my age were walking around and did I ever feel old. But nevertheless I walked in and saw there was a set going on inside with a small number in the crowd. Thinking they wouldn’t care if I just sat in on the rest of the set, I asked, and they said I couldn’t come in until the 9:30 show. okay… So I left and grabbed dinner.

I came back at 9:30 to a crowd of sorts in the lobby where they had a small bar with a few things to eat along with a nice selection of coffees, teas, wine and beer. After getting a glass of wine and my ticket, most of the people in the lobby started back inside the theater space. I soon realized this was the band. There were a equal number left of us that didn’t go back behind the band stand; 16.

The Bill Watrous Big Band was swinging. It was a very casual atmosphere despite hardly anyone being there. There we all were, 16 in the band, 16 in the audience, waiting for the band to get themselves organized enough to start playing the first tune.

The theater is decently sized with about 100 plastic garden chairs as seats. Artwork adorns the walls of the jazz greats.

The crowd was mainly made up of older people, a young 20 something with his grandmother, the alone office lady tapping her foot and bobbing her head, the crazy old guy in the front row who kept on yelling, “yah!”. One thing has to be said about a Monday night 9:30 crowd in downtown Culver City is that they are really here to hear the music. You had passion in the band as well as a listening passion in the audience.

The band was very good. This is for sure the space for the best jazz musicians LA has to offer to come together and just have fun. They were having fun. Despite this being their second set of the night and I’m sure after most of them had been working all day, they still had the energy to sit and play some great pieces. Even with their band leader being hospitalized, they still managed to come together after getting some music from his house and organizing it on the fly.

The bass and piano players were exquisite and the rest of the band was just as grand. They were all pros with not a amateur sound in the bunch. Tone was good, pitch was right on, and the solos were well improvised. They played well together.

From Goldstar Events:

One of the finest bop-oriented trombonists of the past 30 years, Bill Watrous has had a low profile since moving to Los Angeles in the 1980s despite remaining quite active. Possessor of a beautiful tone and remarkable technique, Watrous has been constantly overlooked in jazz popularity polls of the past two decades. His father was a trombonist and introduced Bill to music. He played in traditional jazz bands as a teenager and studied with Herbie Nichols while in the military.

Watrous made his debut with Billy Butterfield, and was one of the trombonists in Kai Winding’s groups during 1962-1967. He was a busy New York-based studio musician during the 1960s, working and recording with Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson, Johnny Richards, and Woody Herman; playing in the television band for Merv Griffin’s show (1965-1968); and working on the staff of CBS (1967-1969).

After playing with the jazz-rock group Ten Wheel Drive in 1971, Watrous led his own big band (the Manhattan Wildlife Refuge) during 1973-1977, recording two superb albums for Columbia. After moving to Los Angeles in the late ’70s, Watrous continued working in the studios, appearing at jazz parties, playing in local clubs, and leading an occasional big band. He has recorded as a leader for Columbia, Famous Door, Soundwings, GNP Crescendo, and with his late-’90s big band for Double-Time.

This isn’t so much a venue for a night out on the town with jazz. But if you’re in the mood for some good music straight up, this is the place. It’s very casual, laid back and you don’t have to deal with typical LA’s parking problems and prices.

Grab your tickets on Goldstar events way ahead of time for the best prices. Their shows are kind of expensive for where they are I think, but if you go early, you sometimes can get two shows for the price of one. The set I went to was only a little less than a hour long which included about 5 songs. But if you get tickets on Goldstar, yes they are half price, but you only get one show.

You think they would offer better specials considering how slow it was. I think the management is a bit uptight. The bands though I think are awesome.

Check them out:

The Jazz Bakery
3233 Helms Ave.
Culver City, CA 90034

Get tickets for the Jazz Bakery on Goldstar Events.

If you’re not a member of Goldstar, Click Here to sign up for free.

There are a few more jazz clubs I’ve been wanting to try out which I want to try in the next few weeks.

Some other music that is going on in LA this week:

Ben Jelen
Saturday, October 13th @ The Hotel Cafe, 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood $10

And Sunday, The Section Quartet: OK Computer, at Spaceland (1717 Silver Lake Blvd, 323.661.4380). More event info HERE.

The Section Quartet
“The Section Quartet was formed on the principles of rock & roll: musicians challenging the establishment by knocking down the walls dividing two genres of music. With their kinetic arrangements, eclectic repertoire, and bold performance style, the worlds of classical and rock collide with spectacular results.” – Bio

~J

Theater: Ultimate Freebie: To the Stage!

On October 19, many Los Angeles theaters will take part in a night of free theater to be held in several cities nationwide. Those already confirmed include the Ahmanson Theatre, A Noise Within, Mark Taper Forum, Open Fist Theatre Company and many more. To get in on this, visit the official website now and sign up for the mailing list to be notified when tickets are available for reservation.

Film: “Shortbus” the Review

I went to the preview of John Cameron Mitchell’s long awaited “Shortbus” last night with a friend and it was everything I expected and more. They were even handing out goodie bags with mini vibrators, condoms, and lube.

I knew I would have to write this entry. I was dreading it. Because I hate to not have anything bad to say about a movie. So I’m just going to say it was amazing and everyone has to see it. Okay maybe a bit more than that.

You know how some movies are at best a slice of pie? Well this is the whole unrated pie. It’s real, insane, funny, dark… I hope more films in the near future will strive to be this bold. It paints a true picture of people, their struggles, their pains, the thurst for human interaction and relationships, the thrive to learn and grow from one another… The sexual passion that moves people. The power of sex…

This is the type of movie I want to make. This is the type of character development I want to do. This is the type of casting I want to do. This is the DP I want to work with, the music I want in my films, the lighting, the textures, the animations the struggles the everything.

It opened in NYC yesterday (LA this Friday)… here’s the first NY Times review:

NEW YORK TIMES Manohla Dargis’ gushing rave review of Shortbus.

“As utopian visions go, it doesn’t get much better than Shortbus… Certainly it’s deeply, if promisingly, at odds with an American movie mainstream that has grown progressively more prudish about sex over the last three decades, while its representations of violence have grown more obscenely violent. Hollywood says let it bleed. Mr. Mitchell would rather we get off on life.” –NY Times, 10/4/06

Go see it! It starts Friday in LA at the Sunset 5 theater on Sunset Blvd. For more cities, visit their website. There are also many more previews happening around the country. See the previous post about Shortbus for all the links.

CHEERS!

~J