OH S#!T ... literally!

Any news story with these quotes has got to catch your attention...

"12,000 gallons of raw sewage into Spinnaker Bay"

"The L.A. and San Gabriel rivers are like 'big latrines' that dump into Long Beach harbor"

"Severe sewage contamination has forced four beach closures so far"

"Long Beach has seen 31 sewage spills since January"

Read the full LA Times story here.


Side Note: This is why you should never swim in Long Beach.

Great art... great cause!

Matt Wignall will be exhibiting some INCREDIBLE PHOTOS from his series in support of Water Wells for Africa. This exhibition will be hosted at DDR Projects in Long Beach. The opening is on August 1st and will feature DJ Pete Deeble spinning wax.

For more about Matt Wignall - go see MattWignall.com
For more about the gallery - go see DDRProjects.com
For more about the cause - go see WaterWellsForAfrica.com
And for more about DJ Pete Deeble.... well... just take my word for it!

Some of you may also know Matt Wignall as the local Long Beach music scene trailblazer: from Scouts of Saint Sebastian, Matt Death and the New Intellectuals, and Havalina; man behind the mix for many a local record made at his "Tackyland" studio; and man behind the cameras for Long Beach music stars the Cold War Kids. He is also co-founder of Matte Black clothing designs. And when he's not mastering art, music, or fashion... he is quitely plotting to conquer the world!

Movies on the beach, yo!

Enjoy FREE movies on the beach in Long Beach every Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. through August 27. "Seafest" returns for its fifth season on the beaches of Belmont Shore, featuring a variety of classics - Singin' in the Rain, Casablanca, North by Northwest, E.T. and Jurassic Park, to name a few. Also, for all of us nerds who fantasize about time-traveling DeLoreans, hoverboards, and kicking the asses of 1950s bullies, Back to the Future is showing on Tuesday, July 29 at Grenada Beach. For more information, visit: http://www.alfredosbeachclub.com/seafest-movie.html

Cold War Kids secret show!

Cold War Kids play a secret show at The Prospector!

"Where the heck is The Prospector?!" - you ask. Well, its a tiny bar in Long Beach, that is hot with the locals. But it doesn't matter cause the show was last Friday night! So... HA! You missed it!
(that's OK... I missed it too...)

I got word of it after I already had tickets for Batman (see previous post), and I rushed over just to arrive as they finished the set... Oh well.

But the word at the bar was that they played all new material from their forthcoming album, and while it still showcases thier distictive rythmic sound, it is a little further from folk and a little closer to punk this time around. Go see their website for more info.

This would be a good thing! And that I can verify personally, I was at a show in March at the OC Performing Arts Center... They played a couple of new songs at that show, along with the following excellent cover of Fugazi's "Furniture". Enjoy!

Aliens, Monasteries, and a Russian Tortoise of spiritual significance...

It turns out that we are all really aliens... from another galaxy... sent here to help humanity... If we can channel our true self, then maybe we will ascend into the next life... and... in a thousand years we will all be wearing triangle necklaces... or something like that...

At least that's the story according to the "Morningland Urban Monastery", as passed down to them (through their leader) from a vision of a giant Tortoise named Thinis back in the 1980s.



Well...
This isn't that same tortoise, but Thinis II suddenly dissappeared from the "monastery" recently. He holds some mystic place of spiritual significance for the group as a representative of their founder's vision.

So....
If you've seen a Russian Tortoise trekking around LA somewhere...
You might want to let them know... they're worried...

If you live in Long Beach you've probably seen these signs up all over the place!


Check out this past week's District magazine (or read it online here) for more about Thinis II and the Morninglanders... and for an alternative point of view, check out Ex-Morninglanders.com.

Pirates & Graphic Tees @ LB Sea Festival

MEG mentioned pirates in her post the other day....
I ran into some on Saturday, and I figured I might as well share my recent experience.

For some reason I was compelled to attend the Pirate Festival held this weekend on the Belmont Pier in Long Beach. "Why?!?" you might ask... Because it's PIRATES! If you knew there were pirates about 5 blocks from your home... I bet you'd be there too!

Well...
Maybe I had too high of hopes, but the Pirate festival was lame.
Entertaining maybe (the "pirate" to non-pirate ratio was remarkably high).
But still... really lame.

Except for this beautiful lady:

It kinda felt like the "Pirate Festival" was just an excuse to get advertising in front of all the local pirates (more than I knew existed). In addition to a few vendors selling "actual" pirate wares, there were numerous distinctly pirate vendors such as: artificial lawn installers, local gym memberships, baseball tickets, inflatible bounce-houses for kids, and cable TV.

But it wasn't a total waste...

I did catch this killer local T-shirt vendor... TeedOffTees.com

Not a real exciting website, but great shirts nonetheless.

Now for my rant about Long Beach's "Sea Festival" which organized this atrocity... suffice it to say that this pirate event was in my opinion rather typical of the "The Sea Festival" (which costs the City of Long Beach serious cash every year) which supposedly has organized "more than 90 events" over the course of this summer... such unique and distinctive Long Beach events as the 4th of July!!! Why are my tax dollars paying for 3 different "fireworks watching" parties... At places that are generally open to the public anyways! What the hell! I'm having a 4th of July party! I want to get city funding! The only difference is that corporate sponsors are going to show up at their event and try to sell you stuff! But guaranteed the "Sea Festival" is going to claim that thousands of people showed up just because of their awesome organizing skills and this justifies giving them more money next year. And someone is getting rich on corporate sponsorship in the process.

I'm so over it.