It’s officially fall. Why am I sweating?

Our countrymen in the cold clutches of a Minnesota October would hoot like joyful, tropical monkeys right now to have an 84 degree autumn, but for long-term Angelinos, it’s challenging to feel trapped in a bikini year-round.

So after a summer of beer and barbecued sausages, what’s left for fall? Beer and barbecued bratwurst. To fully experience the seasonal shift, simply wear lederhosen.

Getting drunk in your neighbor’s backyard was so July, but getting drunk in Torrance—in the well-organized gluttony of Alpine Village—is a bold gesture toward accumulating fat cells that would sustain folks in colder climes through a four-month blizzard.

Cajole someone into designated driving and merge onto the 405 south to behold a tented oasis of Germanic alcoholism. The plastic red kegger cups you slurped Tecate out of through August are no match for Alpine Village’s sturdy, ceramic steins of beer. Tip: hit the place after 6:30 p.m. on Friday or Saturday, when it’s limited to fools 21 and over. No one needs the buzzkill of a 4 year old throwing fistfuls of pickled cabbage like confetti.

For those willing to make a more aggressive effort toward autumnal cirrhosis, the Big Bear Oktoberfest lies roughly 100 miles away, in the pine-needly comfort of the San Bernadino National Forest. Sometimes, all it takes is an old guy dressed like a gnome to remind you that life need not always be a beach.

After last week's onslaught of frighteningly bad news, the Emmys were a welcome relief, especially for a TV junkie like me. "Gossip Girl" has been a fun warm-up, but it's the Emmy Awards that really signal the start of the fall TV season—and what better way to get pumped for the shows than by partying with the stars of them? Lucky for me, it was all about the Emmy events on Sunday, from Entertainment Tonight's party at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where "Mad Men" star January Jones celebrated, to HBO's extraordinarily well-attended bash at the Pacific Design Center. And by well-attended I mean Jeremy Piven, Adrian Grenier, Tom Hanks, Bill Maher, and Larry David all in the same room. And that was just the men. We've got the full party report here, which you know wouldn't be complete without some new 90210 gossip.

I personally hit up TV Guide's party because they always put together something that's trendy, but also whimsical. Last year: Versailles at Les Deux. This year: a Japanese fantasyland at the Kress, complete with oversized bonsai trees, giant rock gardens, kimono-clad girls, performing geishas, paper cranes hanging from the ceiling, and bounties of Japanese treats, notably spicy shrimp rolls and a sake that'd been chilled to perfection in this ice sculpture that all bars should have. MGMT and the Bravery were this year's surprise headliners, a surprise twist given last year's main attraction Kanye West. As always, I was most excited about seeing the stars of my favorite programs, which this year included Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer") and Jaime Murray ("Dexter"). Spying Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson engaged in lovey-dovey PDA was pretty fun too. 

 I've got more photos and gossip where that came from! See the full report here»

Now let's just hope for some good news this week.

—Alexandra Le Tellier