Have you always wanted to be famous, but know you don’t have what it takes to become a star (i.e. a sex tape where Ray-J pees on you?) Fear not — because on April 24th, we’re all getting famous. No, this does not involve guns, put those down. STOP THAT.

Full disclosure: I’m one of the guys throwing this event. Now here’s how it works: we meet at noon in front of the WME building, where we run a winding, three-mile obstacle course through Beverly Hills. Hidden throughout the course will be packs of photographers. Your goal is to make it to the finish line without them getting a picture of your full face.

Scattered along the way will be hidden caches of “identity concealers”, i.e. low-brimmed hats and those sunglasses that put a black bar over your eyes. (We were going to offer ski masks, and then remembered ski masks + sprinting through Beverly Hills in broad daylight = “Officer, these cuffs are too tight.”)

Got a camera and the ability to be sneaky? We want you. Got a pair of running shoes and a well-developed flight sensibility? We want you. (Costumes are also encouraged.) The race starts at noon, but paparazzi are required to show up at 11 AM so we can get you vultures in your respective hiding places.

Afterward, in a stirring tribute to something that would totally happen in real life, the celebrities and the paparazzi will meet up for a beer at the Writer’s Bar in the L’Ermitage Hotel.

Be sure to RSVP for the event on Facebook.

_______________________

WHAT: Celebrities Vs. Paparazzi footrace
WHEN: April 24th, noon-1 PM (Paparazzi to meet at 11 AM)
WHERE: Starting at the WME building
$$$: Free

Ugh it’s sooooooo hottttttttttttt.

• Catch Falcor, Atreyu, and Bastian on the big screen at midnight. What kind of name is BASTIAN? Wtf.
• Climb stairs for a good cause or just visit the Hope Street Fair today!
• Speaking of fairs… the good ol’ LA County Fair is still up and running and serving up tasty treats!
• Stay up all night and party in San Bernadino at the Nocturnal Festival.
• My pick of the weekend: Chinatown screened outdoors at Barnsdall Park with a visit from the Coolhaus Truck!
• The Red Bull Soap Box race may add lots of traffic downtown but it will also be pretty awesome.
• If you were lucky enough to get tickets to the possibly hilarious Sound of Music Sing-A-Long, the rest of us will stay home and cry.
• It’s the last night of the French OhLaLA Fest presented by KCRW and Goldenvoice, don’t miss out!
• You better be in Venice on Sunday because it’s the annual Abbot Kinney Festival with tons of stuff happening.
• Read this guide in Craftiness to design and make your very own homemade rug!
• The Dodos will be at the El Rey Sunday, and if you don’t believe me, read The Soundboard for proof!.
• Umami Burger: Overrated? You decide – read this week’s Bored & Hungry.
• Listen to The Black Apples, this week’s Local Band Spotlight!
• Make a day of thrift shopping on Magnolia Ave. in Burbank, a very sweet street.
• Go out for a wild night of tropical fruity drinks at a Tiki-Ti!

The equinox has passed, summer has officially burned into fall, and that means it’s time for another seasonal massive rave. And since the nights are now longer than the days, it may be to your advantage to try a nocturnal lifestyle.

This weekend brings us the Nocturnal Festival, a large scale festival-style rave that offers six stages of music, as well as rides, art installations, and other goodies specifically designed to blow your mind a little bit. The whole thing is outdoors, inconveniently located in beautiful San Bernadino, at the NOS Events Center. It’s in its fifteenth year, so you know these guys can throw a party. Strange to think that they were doing this crazy stuff all the way back in 1995, when I was just learning how to write in cursive.

Well if you can make the trek, my bet is that it will be worth it. After all, everyone knows the prettiest rave girls go to the raviest raves. If my father wasn’t coming into town this weekend I might consider joining you, but I’m not sure he would necessarily approve of the things we occasionally do when the sun goes down.

—————————————-

WHAT: Massive rave
WHEN: This Saturday, September 26th 5pm-4am
WHERE: NOS Events Center, San Bernadino
$$$: 60

Summer is officially over, but lucky for us (in my opinion) summer weather has stuck around a bit longer. Why not take advantage of it and enjoy an outdoor screening before you have to worry about bundling up for those sorts of things? Enjoy a great movie with some friends and amazing movie snacks at another Barnsdall outdoor movie night, this time featuring an LA classic- Chinatown. By great snacks, I mean the best snack there is- beer! Silver Lake Wine hosts a beer garden from 4-7pm offering four glasses of two unique beer selections for $25 (including admittance to the movie). Not bad, considering four glasses of average beer will cost you about the same in a bar. The amazing snack category goes over the top with Let’s Be Frank, the hot dog cart that was featured in Johnathan Gold’s list of LA’s 99 best restaurants. And to top it all off, enjoy a kick-ass made-to-order, ginormous ice cream sandwich by Coolhaus- while the weather’s still warm! I’m sure there will be some delicious and exciting flavors on hand (like maybe Honeyhock? mmm). Movies, scenery, beer, grass-fed beef hot dags, all-natural ice cream- what more could you want for a last taste of summer? Oh, and a familiar personality will be there (me).
_________________________

WHAT: Barnsdall Outdoor Movie Night featuring Chinatown
WHEN: Sat. Sept. 26th 4-9:30pm
WHERE: Barnsdall park, Hollyhock house
$$$: 10 for the movie, 25 including beer garden

Having a car in Los Angeles is pretty much a necessity. You can’t walk anywhere and public transportation is so horrible, you’re left with almost no choice but to drive.


Having a soapbox racer in Los Angeles, on the other hand, not so much a necessity. Until Saturday. On the 26th of September, on Grand Ave. And 5th St., right here in Downtown, almost 50 soapbox racing teams will compete in the Red Bull Soapbox Race. The racers will be faced with a crazy course of drops, turns, and everything in between.  And if you’re thinking “okay that’s exciting, but they’re just cars going down a street”, you are totally wrong. The 47 teams were carefully chosen out of 200 applicants. The winners will be picked based on three criteria: speed, creativity, and showmanship. So be prepared to see anything from a giant nose to Pac-Man flying down the streets of LA.


The event is free (woo!) and begins at 11:00AM with soapbox viewing. The opening ceremony is at 12:30PM and the race begins at 1:00PM. The first place winners of the race will get the ultimate Red Bull NASCAR experience..or something like that.






Now let’s move  on to more important matters. While there may be 47 teams participating in the race, one team in particular is all you should really care about, cause well, they’re from the future and trying to save the world. Team Apocolypse, with driver Zantor Wipple have crafted a pretty crazy soapbox    racer out of things like a shopping cart, golf club, and what looks like the barrel of a machine gun. If we are to believe what the team is telling us, “On September 26, 2009, a young scientist will unleash a deadly virus in downtown Los Angeles.” Wipple and his cast of time traveling heroes will do their best to thwart this villain and save the world…I guess by winning the race? Find out more here at their blog or join their facebook group and cheer ‘em on on Saturday as they try to do the impossible and save us all from destruction.

____________________________________________

WHAT: Red Bull Soapbox Race
WHEN: Saturday, September 26th @ 11:00AM
WHERE: Grand Ave. & 5th St.
$$$: Free

Summer is almost over. The festivals have (mostly) come and gone (there are still one or two to look forward to). But that doesn’t mean you still cant go see some good music.

PICK OF THE WEEK

Go see The Dodos. That’s really all that needs to be said in this weekly pick. I could go on and on about their sound. Indie rock with a folk twist. Percussion driven with some serious finger picking guitar. Etc etc. And yes, maybe their newest album isn’t breakthrough or insanely different from their last, but hey, I see nothing wrong with that.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen these guys for free twice. Once this last year at the Getty Center and once a few years ago at a KSCR event at USC’s Ground Zero coffee house. The Getty show was good. It was a bit too packed, there were crap acoustics which meant crap sound, and they had an early curfew, but they still brought their A game and rocked the courtyard for a bit longer than they were supposed to. The show at USC was unreal. They played to a room of no more than 20 people. And you know what? Even with that insultingly low turnout, the band still played a great show. But why am I telling you these things? Why would you care about the two Dodos shows I’ve seen. I’m probably just saying it to brag. No. I’m definitely telling you to brag. But that’s not the only reason. More importantly (Okay. Almost more importantly), I want to show you that these guys don’t mess around. They can play to unruly crowds that are paying little attention to the music and having loud conversations during their set or to a room that’s so empty it’s pathetic and still be able to create a crazy amount of energy.  Imagine them in a good setting.

While seeing them on Sunday at the El Rey won’t be free (it’ll cost you $15..not the cheapest I know, but worth it), it will be fun. I’m sure the crowd will be into it, the sound will be better, and the band will actually be able to feed off the energy and play a show better than either of the ones I saw. And I was excited about those! Just think!!

wembley [at] boredla [dot] com. Ummm….remember? Any tips or anything else…just email me.

OTHER SHOWS TO LOOK OUT FOR:
9/21: Leslie and the Badgers w/Doug Paisley/The Street and Babe Shoadow/Amanda Jo Williams at the echo. 8:30PM. Free. 21+. (I haven’t said much about residencies this month, but you should check em out.)
9/21: Saint Motel w/Lemon Sun/Army Navy/Red Wire Black Wire at Spaceland. 8:30PM. Free. 21+. (More residency!)
9/21: Captain Ahab w/The Monolators/Odd Modern/Basses Loaded at Pehrspace. 9:30PM. $5. All? (Good bands. Cheap ticket. BYOB.)
9/22: Pink Mountaintops w/The Pack A.D./Xu Xu Fang at the echo. 8:30PM. $12. 18+. (Stephen McBean of Black Mountain’s side project.)
9/22: IO Echo w/Funeral Party/Rainbow Arabia at Troubadour. 8:00PM. $10. All. (Dance!)
9/23: Amazing Baby w/The Entrance Band/Night Horse at Troubadour. 8:00PM. $14. All. (Good band with a psychedelic vibe.)
9/23: Crosby, Still & Nash at Greek Theatre. 7:30PM. Varied. All. (Nothing reall needs to be said…)
9/23: The Lonely Forest at Spaceland. 8:30PM. $8. 21+. (Catchy indie pop.)
9/24: Titus Andronicus w/The So So Glos/Radars to the Sky at the echo. 8:30PM. $10. 18+. (Titus Andronicus is kind of where indie meets garage/noise. Maybe with a bluesy twist.)
9/24: One eskimO w/The Ivy Walls/Square on Square at Spaceland. 8:30PM. $10. 21+. (It’s kinda mellow, but I like it.)
9/25: Autolux w/Mini Mansions at El Rey. 8:00PM. $20. All. (I’ve been into dream pop lately and these guys know how to..umm..dream pop.)
9/25: Rain Machine at the echo. 8:30PM. $18. 18+. (You like TV on the Radio. This is Kyp Malone’s side project.)
9/25: Telefon Tel Aviv w/The Race at Spaceland. 8:30PM. $10. 21+. (After an unfortunate death of one of the key members, they’re back on tour. Great electronic music.)
9/23-25: OhhlaLA Fest at the Fonda. Various bands. Find out more here.
9/26: Cotton Jones w/Oliver Future at Spaceland. 8:30PM. $10. 21+. (Good music)
9/26: The Deadly Syndrome w/eskimohunter/The Polyamorous Affair at El Rey. 8:00PM. $12. All. (TarFest.)
9/27: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes w/eskimohunter/Dios/The Parson Red Heads/Chief/The Damselles at Venice Beach. All day. Free. All. (Abbot Kinny Festival.)
9/27: ! ! ! w/Indian Jewelry at Troubadour. 8:00PM. $20. All. (Chk Chk Chk!)
9/27: Tweak Bird w/Warpaint/VOICEs VOICEs/Jel & Odd Nosdam/Living Suns/Blank Blue/60 Watt Kid/DJ Nobody/Slang Chickens/Spirit Vine at Knitting Factory. 5:00PM. $13. All. (Longhair Illuminati Art & Music Festival.)

_____________________________________________________

WHAT: The Dodos
WHEN: Sunday, September 27th @ 7:00PM
WHERE: El Rey
$$$: $15
Ages: All

Back when I lived in the Midwest, county fairs were the thing to do.  Funnel cakes, livestock, and carnival rides?  No better way to pass the hot summer days.  LA’s county fair might not have the same old country charm, but it’ll still be a rootin’ tootin’ good time.

Oh God, I just said rootin’ tootin’.  Sorry.

Anyway, the LA County Fair starts this weekend and goes on for the next month.  For Labor Day weekend only, if you get there between 10 AM and 1 PM, admission is only a dollar.  You’ll still have to pay for parking and everything once you get in there, but it sounds like a pretty good way to spend a day to me.

__________________________________

WHAT: LA County Fair
WHEN: September 5-October 4
WHERE: LA County Fairplex
$$$: $10 for parking plus $1-$17 for admission

I’m so so so excited for Sing Along Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl.  When I was little, The Sound of Music was my FAVORITE movie.  For more than a year of my life, I watched the movie (both VHS tapes of it!) every single day.  I dreamed of being a Von Trapp.  So, yeah, you can bet I’ll be up in the benches belting along with Julie Andrews.  For those of you not in the know, starting at 6:00 there will be a costume parade for everyone that decides to show up decked out in their German beer wench Halloween costumes and/or leiderhosen.  And then at 7:30 the real magic begins – The Sound of Music on a GIANT screen with everyone singing along.

Yeah, I know that it’s a month away, but this event sells out every year, so I figured I’d give you guys a heads up while there are still tickets to be had.  I’ll post a reminder closer to the date.  But, in the meantime, go get your tickets!  The cheapest seats are just six bucks, which is like 1/3 the cost of seeing a movie at the Arclight.

___________________________________________

WHAT: Sing Along Sound of Music
WHEN: Saturday, September 26th @ 6 PM
WHERE: Hollywood Bowl
$$$: between $6 and $69