It's Up To You, America

I can't breathe. It's up to you, America. Do the right thing. If Obama wins, we pop the champagne. If it's McCain, we're finishing the Wild Turkey.

As a bonus, if Nevada goes blue (with a teensy canvassing assist from us), we'll open this sparkling wine from Nevada, Spain.

Please, please, please.

An Eerie Resemblance At Kaldi Coffee

During an attempt to join an ill-fated "No On Prop 8" phonebank at Kaldi Coffee in Atwater Village this Sunday I noticed a remarkable resemblance between friendly Kaldi barista Ivo and revolutionary rocket scientist, JPL co-founder and occult practitioner Jack Parsons. I have Parsons on the mind because I'm currently reading a fascinating biography of him called Strange Angel. Judge for yourself!

Bike Valet At The Americana?

The Coalition For A Green Glendale Blog says:

We recently discovered that the Americana offers free valet services for bicycles. Just visit the valet stand and hand over your bike to a cheery valet attendant. The attendant secures your bike and hands you a claim ticket. Simple and convenient!

A welcome development! This must be new. On opening day, no one at the concierge desk had any idea if there was even any official bike parking on site. I titled that post "What, No Bike Valet?".

Americana Christmas Tree Erected

And the game of "whose Christmas tree is biggest" begins. This 106 foot white fir tree from McLeod, California, is certainly the tallest Christmas tree Glendale has ever seen.

The trunk and branches were separated for transport. In the pictures below, you can see numbers written on the base of the branches, which I assume indicate which level that branch belongs to. I had to get back to work, but it would be fun to sit with coffee and a magazine and watch the workers reassemble this behemoth for a few hours.





The tree lighting ceremony will be on Saturday, November 15th at 7pm.

Halloween Ghost Train

This year's Halloween display at 1665 Highland portrayed a life-size steam locomotive crashing through the front of the house, plus a speaking animatronic skeleton and bird. The attention to detail was stunning, from the patina of the train to the animated wheel and pistons. Great work, Peter.

Kwik E. Kart

A brilliant name for a junk-food kiosk at the Glendale Galleria.

Blight At the Corner of Chevy Chase and Brand

In my backyard, grrrrr. I spoke against this at the zoning administrator's hearing but the zoning change to allow it was approved by Edith Fuentes.

Glendale's Halloween Scene

My friend James is a master craftsman (and brilliant animator) who puts up a fantastic Haunted Mansion Halloween display in his front yard every year. The most astonishing aspect of his display is that all of the props and decorations are handmade and not store bought. The attention to detail is phenomenal, and he's documented much of the building process on his blog. You can check it out tomorrow night at 1233 Moncado Dr.



Last year he helped another Glendale resident put up an amazing giant animatronic ghost ship and talking skeleton. This year, that person is putting on another large display with a crashed steam locomotive. Check out this year's display at 1665 Highland Ave, just below Cumberland. Here are some pictures from last year's incredible life size ghost ship.



There are a number of other Halloween events happening this weekend. Kendyl has a thorough list here. Notably, the cast of Wicked will be performing at the Americana on Friday at 5pm.

I'll leave you with a picture of last year's best group costume winners from the costume competition on the Disney lot. These guys were great and very much in character.

Glendeal: 33 Cent CFL Light Bulbs TODAY ONLY

Spotted in the Albertson's 8-hour sale circular: A 3 pack of energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs for only $1. That's 33 cents a bulb, plus the money you'll save on electricity!

Stock up now, as this deal is only available Thursday, October 30th from 1pm to 9m at your local Albertson's.

Porto's Presidential Cookie Tracking Poll

The Porto's Presidential Cookie Poll is not yet referenced on Electoral Vote or Five Thirty-Eight yet, but it does offer some insight into local political leanings. Barring some sort of October cookie surprise, the Obama cookies are dominating.




Much like campaign promises, the shortbread and frosting political cookies are far too sweet for my taste. I'm looking forward to a savory Democratic salad of fiscal and environmental responsibility come January.

The Atwater Village Newbie covered Porto's Burbank location cookie poll here.

Los Feliz Blvd Being Resurfaced

Los Feliz Boulevard is being resurfaced from Central to the border with Atwater Village. I haven't found any information on the city's website about the duration of the project. Hopefully this fixes the lumpy pavement on the south side of Los Feliz that I always have to dodge on my road bike.

Unless you really want to get filthy, you'll probably want to use Chevy Chase to Brunswick to Los Feliz or Glendale Blvd as an alternate route into Atwater Village for the next week or so.

Obama In Nevada

Here are a few photos from the highlight of my productive and exhausting weekend in Nevada.

My Dad took this one.

King Kong At The Alex This Saturday

I'm out of town this weekend, but if I was in Glendale tomorrow, I'd definitely be at the screening of King Kong at the Alex Theatre with Ray Bradbury at 2pm. More info at the Alex site here:

Alex Film Society and Carl Denham Present: King Kong

Bus Shelter Car Crash: The Sequel

Glendale, this is why we can't have nice things: for the second time in 4 days, a car has destroyed a brand new bus shelter, this time at the northwest corner of Central and Chevy Chase. According to an officer at the scene, a northbound tan vehicle collided with a westbound Nissan Altima, sending the Nissan into the bus stop. No one was injured, although apparently a pedestrian crossing the street at the time narrowly avoided being squashed.



On a related note, last Wednesday evening a sedan jumped a curb and crashed into the Way To Happiness Foundation building at Broadway and Maryland. Way to go, Glendale drivers. Slow down and pay attention: your life and the lives of those around you depend on it. We're very fortunate that no pedestrians have been killed during this week's sidewalk demolition derby.

Scary Product: Rotten Realty Sign

I'm guessing this will be a best-seller this year. Spotted at the Spirit Halloween Store.

Scary Product: Butter Pound Cake Candles

This didn't smell very good. Spotted at Rite-Aid.

Galleria Vinyl Banners Finally Removed

The tacky vinyl banners on the side of the Glendale Galleria facing the Americana were finally removed last week.

Bus Stop Car Crash Information *UPDATED*

*5pm update: There are several eyewitness accounts in the comments that are worth reading.

I also updated the diagram to place the car making a left-hand turn onto California in the correct left-turn lane on Brand. My earlier version just roughly placed the NB car on Brand, and I didn't mean to imply that the left turning car wasn't in the proper lane. I stopped by the crash site this afternoon and added the skid marks I observed to the diagram. Remarkably, the demolished bus shelter has already been completely removed.

Here is some more information regarding the major bus stop car crash on Brand yesterday evening from Glendale PD spokesman Tom Lorenz:

A vehicle s/b Brand collided with a vehicle n/b Brand at the intersection of California. The s/b vehicle continued s/b (over 200 feet of skid marks), jumped the curb, and continued s/b on the west sidewalk of Brand. The vehicle sheared off a light post, demolished the bus stop, and sheared off a 25’ tree, then eventually came to rest as it collided with the Japanese and Argentinean restaurants. The vehicle then caught fire in the engine compartment. The fire was extinguished with a fire extinguisher retrieved from the trunk of a patrol vehicle. Both vehicles were totaled and damage spread debris in the area, to include battery acid from a vehicle battery that was broken in half. The driver of the n/b vehicle suffered a broken leg and was transported to USC in stable condition. The driver and two passengers of the s/b vehicle complained of pain; the driver was transported to a local hospital. Fortunately, no pedestrians or restaurant patrons were injured.

Thank goodness no one was waiting for a bus or leaving El Morfi. I made a map of the crash based on the new info. I'm speculating that the NB driver was turning left, I don't positively know that but it seems like the most plausible scenario. The Google Maps image is a bit outdated- the sidewalk is currently much wider, which I indicated with the dotted black line.

Car Accident Destroys New Bus Shelter On Brand

I returned home from Nevada tonight and was greeted with this horrible sight on Brand Boulevard. A Toyota jumped the curb and plowed into a bus shelter, destroying the shelter and eventually crashing into El Morfi Grill and Aoba Sushi. I hope no one was seriously injured. To do this much damage, the Toyota must've really been moving.

Glendale In the LA Weekly

There have been two Glendale specific articles in the LA Weekly worth reading over the last few weeks:

Going Carless In Glendale and Montrose

Down and Out at the Americana

Downtown Glendale Mervyn's To Close

Along with every other Mervyn's. All 149 stores will be liquidated over the holidays.

From LA Biz Observed:

Directors of the Hayward-based department store chain, now in bankruptcy protection, have determined that a going-out-of-business sale during the holiday season offers the best chance to pay up creditors. After that, the business will wind down and its 149 stores will close, including locations all over Socal.

Franklin Avenue's Mike speculated on what might become of the location several months ago (before the Glendale location was scheduled to close):

For the Glendale Galleria, that [Mervyn's closing]could be a good thing. Mervyn's doors represent the Galleria's only entrance on Brand -- and anyone interested in hitting the Galleria from the street has to go through a Mervyn's maze before finally hitting the mall. Now that the Americana has added tons of foot traffic to that part of Brand, the Galleria would be wise to construct a brand new mall opening there, coupled with new, smaller retail space, rather than attempt to find another department store to fill the void.

I absolutely agree. Here's the hard, uninviting current entrance:

Pounding the Pavement

Glendale's own Franklin Avenue has rounded up a list of big walks that are coming up over the next few weeks.

Forthcoming walks include:

• This weekend's 26 mile walk down Western Avenue with Metroblogging's Will Campbell and Julia Frey (October 18th).
• The Location Managers Guild of America's Route 66 Project (beginning November 9th)
  
• The Verdugo Hills Community Hike and Trail Run (November 8th)
  
• And last but not least, Franklin Avenue's own Great Los Angeles Walk, which I've had a great time participating in for the last two years. No word on what this year's street is. Two years ago we walked the length of Wilshire and last year we tackled Pico. (November 22nd)
  

If you plan on doing any of these walks, start by doing shorter walks now and building up your endurance. When I first walked Wilshire two years ago (with no preparation), I did fine until mile 10-- after that I was really in pain, and very sore for a week afterwards. During last year's Pico walk I was in much better shape generally and better prepared, and completed the 16 mile trek without any problems.

One of the best ways to start building your endurance is to join the Sierra Club on a free night hike in Griffith Park. Multiple group hikes from beginner to advanced skill levels depart from the upper merry-go-round parking lot every Tuesday and Thursday night at 7pm.

Also, and I can't emphasize this enough: buy really nice socks. I'm partial to double-layer WrightSocks, which I buy on clearance from REI Outlet.

This weekend I'll be doing some urban walking of my own: I'm driving to Nevada to canvass for Obama. I went to Nevada in 2004 for Kerry and found that pounding the pavement is much more rewarding than sitting at home stewing in anger at the news.

Dog Sledding At the Central Library?

Two interesting posts from the (very small) Glendale oriented blogosphere:

• From the Glendale Public Library's Book Talk blog, a post about a DOG SLEDDING demonstration at the Glendale Central Library this Saturday October 18th. Sounds cool, but I'll be out of town.
• Over at Kendyl's Open House, Kendyl posts about the Miss American Green Cross statue behind the Brand Library and some of Brand Park's hiking trails.

One Coffee Break, Two Terrifying Visions

The cafe at Borders has introduced calorie counts to the dessert case, thereby providing a terrifying glimpse of the future. Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed a bill requiring calorie and fat information to be listed on the menus of large chain restaurants in California, so no more munching down on carrot cake in nutritionally ignorant bliss...970 calories in one slice!

Also spotted on Brand.