A little backstory: Instead of dinner, I just ate three columns of Ritz crackers. Doing the math, I realized this was the caloric equivalent to eating four Big Macs. 

Cut to me wondering why, if neon colors and sweatbands have resurrected themselves, Jazzercise hasn't made a triumphant return. Seriously, I'd hit some classes if they had a decent soundtrack. I'm thinking a little Klaxons, some Digitalism, maybe throw in some Robot moves with The Pity Party...

I even seem to remember Cobrasnake getting his sweat on as an aerobics instructor for Paper Mag 's quick west coast lovefest a few years back. Why did it not stick?!

Fist on table, ready to get funky, I say we mobilize our forces and crank up the jams in a dark, disco-riffic workout/club setting. Good for the ears, excellent for the booties.   

(As a prime example of No-Not-Quite-But-Thank-You, I present video of L.A.'s beloved Ditty Bops' induction into Jazzercise fame. Warning: may contain footage of older women shaking their ta-tas. But the payoff comes at the end as Ditty Bop and former model Amanda Barrett is seen in a skin-tight aerobics getup and pink hair. Even as a straight chick, I'll admit that's hot.)

 

 

I like Opening Ceremony a lot. Go to their sale on Friday and get up to 50% off.

451 N. La Cienega, 90048 

 

 

Lo and behold upon returning from his trip my rooommate announced the Simpsons donut in the fridge was actually for me!  Oh happy day!  Time to dive into this insta-diabetes inducing pastry. --SR

I received word today that Quute, an English handbag company, is coming out with a range of bags and clutches that come with a light inside to illuminate your belongings. Seeing as I spend at least 20 minutes a day rummaging for my lipliner/money/phone/car keys in the abyss that is my handbag, this news was of interest. Quute bags retail for about $500, and you can order them online by emailing info@quuteillumina.co.uk. Or visit www.quuteillumina.co.uk. 

If that's out of your price range, try the Solas bag (Jessica Alba is a fan), which will also light up your life, and starts at $129.

And if that's still too much - get a glow stick. 

 

I met up with RTX's Jennifer Herrema yesterday at the Rose Cafe in Venice. We talked about all kinds of things...her long-running association with Calvin Klein (she was an original CK One girl in the 1990's, shot by Stephen Meisel at the height of the 'waif' era -  they told her if she refused to be part of the campaign "we'll just find someone who looks like you"), and how Calvin Klein flew her and her band out to Melbourne, Australia recently to perform on the catwalk during a fashion show. Yes - on the catwalk. "It was kinda weird," said Herrema, who has the best legs in rock music, "but we went with it. They treated us great." Jennifer has visionary taste in clothes and has styled shoots for i-D and Nylon mags - but her primary focus (aside from her boyfriend, who plays bass in RTX) is her music.

I saw RTX play at the Penny-Ante book release party a month ago. The sight of Jennifer groaning and writhing in all her kooky sartorial glory almost made me pee my pants. She was wearing almost the same outfit when we met up yesterday - denim patchwork bag, tight jeans, alligator skin boots, skull charms, and cotton-candy color fox and mink tails hanging around her waist. And a mess of surf-battered hair, framed by bangs almost as heavy as her music.

Ah yes,  the hair...we drank champagne and talked about how she was a Bardot-like platinum blonde for three years after splitting with her husband Neil Hagerty (with whom she formed the lenegdary but now-defunct Royal Trux). She went blond by literally pouring a bottle of peroxide over her head in the bathroom of their recording studio. "Then it started falling out," said Herrema, who surfs three times a week.

Her hair is now a more natural honey blonde. Nonetheless, I advised her to apply mayonnaise to the ends and leave on overnight as a precautionary measure. 

Photographer Dan Monick was with us and he took some awesome photos of her hanging out on Venice beach, smoking and looking badass. Nadav, her right hand man, told me they are working on a new album which contains "elements of R Kelly". If you've ever heard RTX (opium den heavy rock), you know this is gonna be a far-out combination - it's a cliffhanger, for sure. 

I was on the phone with Jimmy, who works at the Hive Gallery downtown, about the art walk this Thursday. Apparently, folks get on their bikes as a swarm to tour all the radastic galleries, and the Hive usually ends up as the destinaton at the end of the night. This of course, has me dreaming up pretty scenes of me and a bike, joining the gallery tour, then bonding on secret pathways all over the city.

..Me and my bike, stopping for a picnic on the grass, me and my bike, hitting the Bicycle Kitchen for a tune up, spending the afternoon laughing in the grass, me and my bike, sharing an inside joke. My bike would leave me comments on Myspace that only I would get, and at Christmas we'd bake cookies.

Should I just buy one? Should I troll the bike ads, looking for my, um, sole mate?

Seriously, how cute is this? 

 

The Beverly Hills Hotel must be really desperate to lure in the 'young' crowd with its new Bar Nineteen12, which opens tonight. The posh spot has a handsome (dark wood, gold tones, leather chairs), but the drink menu has the kiddie thing going on to the extreme. According to Urban Daddy's "preview," the bar serves martini popsicles, mojito sorbet and jelly shots, an interpretation of the good old Jell-O shot. Yum. The "Cereal Milk" martini, on the other hand, sounds disgusting and gives me the impression I'll be drinking someone curdled backwash. No thanks.

It was like Christmas in the summertime. Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem playing together at the Hollywood Bowl. Oh my. This is going to be seriously fun.

I like the Arcade Fire, but pour moi this one's all about James Murphy and the gang cranking up the disco machine. It's one of those shows that had me all geeked-out in front of my computer at precisely 9:59 a.m. the morning tickets went on sale. Good times.

I've been hot on Murphy's trail for a while now. I saw one of LCD Soundsystem's first shows in Miami during the Winter Music Conference a few years back. They were opening for the Rapture, just fresh from the explosion that was "House of Jealous Lovers." Both bands brought it, but there was something special about LCD Soundsystem that night.

The last time he brought the band through Los Angeles, LCD followed a triumphant Coachella set with a sold out three-night stand at the El Rey. I randomly bought a ticket for the middle night. This would turn out to be a very good move on my part.

The show was what’s becoming for LCD customarily awesome. For me, the highpoint was when they tore through a cover version of Paperclip People's "Throw." Loooong story there, but it's a classic Detroit techno tune produced by Carl Craig. The band covers it faithfully, and on that night, they straight killed it.

So imagine my excitement with KCRW's super-fun Rachel Reynolds invited me down to the studios to watch LCD record a session for "Morning Becomes Eclectic."

I got there just in time to see the band launch into "Time to Get Away." It is one thing to hear the band play at a show — seeing them do it in a small radio studio is another thing entirely. The intricacies of the songs open up like mid-period Talking Heads. Murphy is hilarious between songs. He even called out the Chemical Brothers for "stealing" two Grammys from them. Classic. 

After the show, he was gracious enough to chat. He pointed out that he had the t-shirt I was wearing from Chicago’s Life During Wartime dance parties. I complimented him on his version of “Throw.”

“Oh, you must’ve gone to the middle night. That was the only night we did that song.”

And that’s why it was a good thing I got tickets for the middle show.


The picture above is one that I took at the LCD Soundsystem show at the El Rey.

The picture below is one that I took of James Murphy(R) with KCRW DJ/producer Raul Campos

Sometimes, really odd and memorable things happen to you while eating creating this odd memory link between the taste and the event . Like your very first "I'm so wasted could you hold my hair back" drink (I will never have a Cape Cod again). Or that perfect pizza on your first date with your significant other. Well, I had such an event and food pairing yesterday.

On my way home I was walking to the bus stop when all of a sudden an intense and sudden pain came at my face. I screamed and looked around and saw a man running away from me. He had punched my designer sunglasses into my face, crushing them into a flat wreckage of metal and glass. The blood was spilling out of my nose and mouth as if the hoover dam broke and i was just there screaming in pain and in complete confusion. Luckily, a hospital was across the street and an ambulance saw me about 30 seconds after the incident.

A few hours and 2 vicodins later, im feeling better, shaken but better. a few of my friends had rushed to the hospital to see the elephant man i had become. they were really sweet, my friend Rosalva even gave me an intensive hand massage with lotion.

Afterwards, my other friends Ariel and Dan took me out to Rally's. Neither of us had ever been to Rally's but we decided to give it a go. We sure were glad we did too because it was a pretty darn good burger with seasoned fries. I ordered a double whatever they had. It was a little heavy on the mayo side, but for the first time, I didn't mind, maybe it was the Vicodin talking, or the blood that still lingered in my mouth.

So I guess im shelving the Rally's burger up with the Cape Cod and the Palmermo's pizza. Let's hope the next food item included on the list will involve a lot less violence. 

We all complain about having to wait in line to get past the velvet rope, especially when you know the club’s totally empty and that the doorman is just making people wait so it looks like there's a buzz outside. But aside from being annoying, waiting outside might not be safe.

The recent car-bomb incidents that have recently taken place outside London clubs have LAPD Chief William J. Branton on alert; L.A. might not be a target, but because Hollywood has the highest number of nightclubs in the country, there's reason for caution.

So are club owners going to change how they operate? Nope!

I asked James Sinclair, who owns Element, and he's not worried about the threats. "If we change the way we operate –outside of being more aware of our surrounding and more diligent– then we give the terrorists what they want," he says. "We're in the safest area in the city. There are cameras and security guards everywhere."

Tricia LaBelle, who heads up The Hollywood Hospitality & Nightclub Owner's Association and also owns Boardner's, concurs. "We have so many other survival issues facing our industry at present time in Hollywood that adding another possible issue on top of the list at this point, I personally don't think scares anyone," she says. "As far as a car pulling up and blowing up in front of a venue, it certainly can happen and there isn't much anyone can do to prevent it."

Hollywood club promoter Jason Lavitt also agrees. "There are undercover police on the street each night."

In fact, every club operator I spoke to felt the same way, and that’s a relief.

 

 

 

I took a little trip down to Pepe’s Mexican Food, or as I like to call it Pay-Payzzz, last week to officially seal the deal on my “no bikinis this summer” policy. Love handles be damned, I inhaled three shredded beef tacos without taking a single breath. Now Shane will be rolling his eyes at my little jibes regarding my weight after telling me yesterday “You're so skinny, it’s ridiculous” to which I responded “Yes but underneath my clothes, I’m floppy.” But I digress. The point, if there even is one, is that Pay-Payzzz is The. Best. Taco. Place. Ever. And it’s not just because the tacos are good (which they are. So, so good) but because with its outdoor-seating-only policy and drive-thru window Pepe’s is about as LA taco joint-ish as you can get. Case in point: Every time I go there, and I go there a lot, the possibility of a drive-by shooting crosses my mind. But then I take another bite of my fifth taco and think “Well, if that’s the way I’ve gotta go, at least I’ll go happy.”   

Pepe's Finest Mexican Food, Alhambra

511 W. Valley Blvd.Alhambra, CA 91803

(626) 289-8618