If you’re the sole person who’s never seen this band’s videos before, check them out. I am clueless as to how these guys have the energy to tackle so many super clever and uniquely intricate video ideas *and* also make music.

I’ll be remembering my dad today… he was a plane mechanic in the Air Force who ended up becoming an aeronautical engineer. He was a lead designer of the C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft and a patriotic lover of planes and war movies until the day he died in 2008.

Miss ya, dad… you big goofball. :)

The painfully adorable/ talented Kate Micucci will be returning to her show at the Steve Allen Theater in March. You can also catch her performing around town as Oates of Garfunkel and Oates, as ukulele girl on Scrubs reruns, or in many other cute videos on You Tube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

HiddenLA was born early last summer during a scary transitional period in my life and career… I figured it was a positive way to utilize my skills and interests and occupy my unemployed, idle hands and somewhat depressed little brain. I’d never designed a blog before, knew nothing about CSS, and so I shuttered myself in my apartment for two weeks trying all sorts of things until something eventually stuck to the wall. When steady work showed up again, it was tough to focus on this project but a balance has been found over time, and one day a Facebook fan page was created as an experiment. What the heck, I thought… Facebook’s kinda fun.

When this site earned 200 Facebook fans by the end of Fall it was pretty exciting. (There were names of people who weren’t my friends! Wow, progress.) It was pretty cool early last week when our fans were almost 3,000, too! So imagine the surprise to be able to say that sometime within the next few hours HiddenLA will greet its 60,000th Facebook fan. 60,000 PEOPLE!!!! That number feels really impossible for me to wrap my brain around. (Hell, I haven’t even got any ads up here yet… but if every Facebook fan gave me a buck, I’d be totally debt-free!)

All of that said, honestly what has really gotten to me the most is seeing how the wall of the HiddenLA fan page has turned into something that has to be seen to believed. It’s like a constantly shifting confessional… a real-time digitally rolling wailing wall for people who are *bursting* to share in a whisper or a scream the things they hold dearest within the confines of these 498.3 square miles of LA County: the burger joints, the blues clubs, the romantic spots, the places to hike, the local amusement parks they remember from their childhoods and haven’t been able to talk about to anyone for decades… the list of topics is infinite.

It’s as if when you click on that page you’re instantly vaulted back into the “I Love LA” 80s… before the 90’s scarred us with riots, earthquakes, fires and floods… and the 2000s when crotch-flashing fish-lipped celebutards moved here from the East Coast and began to insert themselves as our city’s unsolicited, horrible mascots. We’ve put up with a lot and to paraphrase a comment made by one of our Facebook fans this very morning, it’s time to take our hometown back into our own hands. The life of your average Angeleno has absolutely *nothing* to do with the public image the world sees of Los Angeles, and that’s a horrible shame. No place is perfect, but Los Angeles is an amazing place to experience if you take a moment to look beneath the media-painted surface. Plus it’s filled with some amazing people. Yeah, there are some jerks too but just ignore them… if you keep giving them attention, the terrorists have won.

Call me a sucker, but to say that the Facebook fan comments have often touched me is an understatement. There is just so much heart in so many of the posts, I find it overwhelming. Quite a few people have mentioned that the site has enriched their lives… without money to travel, people are starting to rediscover their communities. People have e-mailed me to say that the skid row series has changed their perspective on the homeless problem here and they’re planning to volunteer. Another person posted that they decided to try a burger at Bill’s Burgers in Van Nuys based on a HiddenLA recommendation, and not only was the burger good but they sat next to another HiddenLA fan who had found it the same way. I literally kinda mist up when I read these things. It’s just awesome. Yes, I’m a giant, sentimental sap… but this whole community-building experience is really touching my heart. It’s more than I’d hoped for.

For all of you, I’m going to do my best to keep this site and community growing for the long term. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… Los Angeles has a heart. It’s you. So thank you all. For everything.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

It was this paragraph on the Yesterland website that jumped out at me:

“Lion Country Safari was given a big boost by an unlikely star attraction. An elderly, nearly toothless lion named Frasier came from a Mexican circus in February 1971. The old cat’s tongue dangled from one side of his mouth, and he had trouble walking. He may not have been much to look at as far as we humans were concerned, but the lionesses saw him differently. There was population boom of lion cubs at the park. Frasier’s sorry visage adorned tee-shirts and other park souvenirs. Frasier sired 35 cubs until his death in June 1972 at 17-20 years of age, equivalent to a human age of 85-100 years. Frasier even inspired a 1973 feature movie, Frasier the Sensuous Lion, rated PG.” (See creepy poster at right)

Vaguely remembering this funny looking lion from my childhood, I had an instant urge to find out more about Frasier. Imagine my surprise when I found out his active sex life had actually gained enough notoriety for the late jazz greats Jimmy Rowles, Johnny Mercer, and Sarah Vaughan to create a song documenting it (video and full lyrics after the jump).

Go Frasier!

FRASIER
(THE SENSUOUS LION)

Frasier was an aging lion
living in a cage of iron
in a circus out of Tijuana

Frasier was their big attraction
and he gave them satisfaction
doing it with talent and with honor

Growling for his daily dinner
Frasier kept on getting thinner
with each measly can of spam or tuna

Times were lean but he was leaner
so one night in Pasadena
through the bars he split for South Laguna

Oh cruel is fate but it’s never too late said Frasier
I’m ninety one and I haven’t a son thought Frasier
The blue-eyed truth is I’m ready for euthanasia
Though matted and tarry, a local safari, rescued poor old Frasier

First they combed his tangled tresses
housed him with the lionesses
thinking him a harmless old grandpapa

Fed him niacin and fluoride
B1 2 6 12 and chloride
clams, cod liver oil, cobalt and copper

Younger studs brought in for breeding
wound up beaten, bruised and bleeding
every dawn the same thing kept occurring

Stretched out in an old serapi
there lay Frasier tired but happy
all his ladies on the nest and purring

Oh cruel is fate but it’s never too late said Frasier
Announce the feast, I’m the king of the beasts yawned Frasier
But king or not, I’m certainly hot said Frasier
And when you’re hot and hitting the spot
the action will amaze ya

Children by his wives eleven
added up to fifty seven
such nocturnal bliss he must’ve tasted

For no matter what the night time
any night time feels the right time
day time found him fast asleep just wasted

When the circus owner found him
brought a lawsuit to impound him
claiming you cats have to go where we go

Frasier said hasta la vista!
You think all these girls my sistah?
I’m in business for myself, Amigo!

Oh cruel is fate but it’s never too late said Frasier
I thank my stars I’m not behind bars thought Frasier
They pay to see what comes naturally in Asia
No African cat ever had it like that
and kept it up like Frasier

He’s up above dear Frasier
Raising cubs old Frasier
Bless his heart dear Frasier…

Jealous much?

“Sport Chalet will help collect footwear to support shoe charity Soles4Souls’ commitment to donate more than 250,000 pairs of shoes to affected areas… through Jan. 31, customers at Sport Chalet’s 55 stores will have the opportunity to drop off gently worn pairs of men’s, women’s and children’s shoes.” SOURCE

If you were driving along Lankershim today, you might’ve noticed some unusual traffic. Seems the “I’m With Coco” Facebook group organized a pro-Conan O’Brien rally over at Universal Gate 3 this afternoon and considering the *incredibly* crappy weather, it was more of a success than expected (even Conan himself got involved, see video below).

I’m sure the pro-Jay Leno crowd would’ve organized a rally too… except I hear Hoverounds don’t maneuver very well during flash floods. HEY-YO!!!

To answer this question definitively for everyone, let’s just forget about her overexposure and penchant for hair hats and flash back in time for a moment to watch a fresh-faced 19 year-old named Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – a talented, ambitious and rebellious girl virtually identical to so many in the crowd here – sing about her sick ambition of making it big in “Hollywood” and losing her reflection. Which… she did on both counts, really.

But truth be told, I kinda liked Stefani Germanotta better… illegal though it would be, I find myself wanting to buy underage Lady Gaga a beer. But hey, I’m sure she can well afford to buy her own now.

Click here to view the embedded video.