Ready, set, shop! It’s that time of the year again. Billion Dollar Babes, the high-end quarterly sample sale, will be offering up the fashionable wares of Cynthia Rowley, Diane Von Furstenberg as well as various premium denim designers at up to 80% off to the invited masses on Saturday, June 24 at Sony Pictures Studios.
I know, that means a “sale item” will really be $100 instead of $500. Personally, as much as I love a good bargain, I’m not crazy about these sample sales. I don’t like having to rummage around in picked-through piles and duke it out with clothes-horse competitors for a “good deal,” especially when said “good deal” costs a Benjamin. But hey, as I’ve said many times before, I’m lazy AND cheap.
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I think I had the definitive Angeleno moment. Never have I felt a truer sense of the city than when I saw Chinatown last night at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown, thanks to L.A. Conservancy’s Last Remaining Seats.
The Orpheum, built in 1926 and part of downtown’s famed Broadway theatre district, used to host vaudeville acts and was even a first-run movie house until it closed in 2001. After major renovation to its grand French interior, it has become a venue for filming and performing arts events.
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In an effort to attract even more business to Downtown L.A. the Downtown Center Business Improvement District is sponsoring its 2nd Annual Walk-In Movie Series. June 23 through August 6 Angelenos are invited to the California Plaza on Grand Avenue to enjoy free screenings of five newish films:
Friday, June 23 at 8pm
CRASH
Opens with a DJ set by KCRW’s Tom Schnabel of “Cafe LA.”
Saturday, June 24 at 8pm
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Documentary about Al Gore’s lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. Meet Al Gore, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.
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I keep hearing about how nightlife pioneer to the stars Rande Gerber (aka Mr. Cindy Crawford and Clooney’s bff) is opening up a West Coast location of his NYC Stone Rose Lounge sometime this month to coincide with the reopening of the Hotel Sofitel after its $40-million face-lift. But where is it?
All I know is that it’s 5,000 square feet of luxury lounge with an outdoor patio and the requisite VIP sections which, in this case, are concealed behind bookcases so that they’re ultraprivate. H’Well!
Since this is a Gerber creation, Stone Rose will most likely follow in the footsteps of its hot-spot predecessors SkyBar, Whiskey Blue at the W and The Whiskey Bar, burning super hot with exclusive A-list parties at first and eventually slowing down to a simmer of tourists and celebrity regulars since you have to be on a guest list or a hotel guest to get into his hotel bars.
8555 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90048
(310) 278-5444
Once in awhile every Angeleno should steal away from the city to just unplug and get away from it all even if only for the weekend. I understand. It’s hard for me to do, too, especially since there’s nothing I love more than sitting in front of the computer all day, surfing the Net and IMing friends. Sad, I know. But this past weekend I tore myself away from the monitor and went camping up at McGrath State Beach in Ventura.
Located north of Oxnard, this campground seemed to only offer one fabulous expanse of beach and not much else. There’s one nature trail but since that was located way on the other side of the park, I didn’t bother. Instead me and 15 other people (most of them strangers since they are Dre’s friends) spent the better part of the weekend lying out at the beach, inventing a game of basefrisbee (baseball/frisbee), building X-rated sand sculptures, playing naughty drinking games around the campfire, and throwing a steak cooking competition.
This wasn’t the wholesome family vacation I grew up with…not that that’s a bad thing. But, like I said, there wasn’t much else to do at McGrath. Oh yeah, and I took a lot of naps. Many, many naps. Who knew that camping was so exhausting?
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What: “Summertime Rolls” by Jane’s Addiction from Nothing’s Shocking
Who: Surfers and other crazies who like to be up at the crack of dawn on a weekend morning.
When/Where: In the early AM when you’re driving on that stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to Zuma.
Why: Jane’s Addiction music basically goes with any surfing moment and this slower song matches the drive to the beach before you catch some waves. Goes perfect with the pink hues of dawn on a nice lazy drive when there’s no traffic on the PCH just yet to interfere with this meditative moment. There’s just you on the road and the surfers waiting in the water with the occasional dolphin sighting.
Spoiler warning(?): There’s probably a spoiler in here somewhere but who cares?
That’s right. I went to see this movie on opening day. I had to. At my job, it was all anyone would talk about. So I went with a group of car geeks from work. If you’re a girl, I highly recommend seeing a lame movie with 10 guys in an empty theater. Because then they snicker during the pseudo-serious parts of the movie calling it out for trying to be something that it’s not: a film with an actual storyline and stuff. The experience is just funny.
Yeah, if you’re not into cars at all I really don’t know why you’d want to see this movie. I like fast cars and even I thought that some of the racing scenes were gratuitous and drawn out. But I guess they needed something to break up the lame dialogue and even lamer storyline.
It’s basically the same formulaic storyline for every F&F movie: outsider guy races against established guy and somewhere in there is a girl who’s really into cars and she gets in between these two guys. In the end, despite the odds and close calls and minor tragedies, the underdog prevails.
BUT, I did enjoy the drifting action and the racing footage. I walked out of the theater with a headache. That’s a lot of in-your-face action to take in 90 minutes.
If you’re bored and just want to get in from out of the sun on a hot day, you could see this movie in the theater. As it is, I don’t know if I’d even recommend renting it on DVD. Catching it on cable? Sure. Putting it on TV during a party, definitely. People will always look up at the racing scenes and then go back to there party conversations during the quiet parts.
