DISASTER!

Well, not really. I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that two days ago, the City of Los Angeles was shaken to the core. By an EARTHQUAKE. Not the big one, but it sure as hell wasn’t little either. Earthquakes are an interesting phenomenon. We got hit by a 5.4 that lasted just over 20 seconds. Twenty seconds is a looooooong time for an earthquake. So long, that while you are watching everything around you shake like it was a boat on choppy water, you have time to think “this is still happening.” Then you watch people go crazy, screaming and think again “this is still happening!”

Being from the East Coast, I have heard instructions on what to do in an earthquake a couple of times, and filed them away in my head. Interestingly, I remembered that the best place to be was either in a door frame or under a table. Unfortunately, they were all taken. I got to experience this in the open, where stuff could easily fall onto my head. My adrenaline began to pump, and my fear went away. I looked out into the street to see cars moving up and down, shaking side to side and could feel the ground rolling beneath my feet. I was reminded of being on a carnival ride like the shake shack. Oddly, the emotion I felt was a strong connection to the planet. It was as if I had never really felt the ground beneath my feet before then. And this piece of rock that I am standing on is hurtling through space, at warp speed. I felt infinitely connected to everything that is.

Then I thought about how this rock we live on is all we got. It carries us around the sun to keep us warm and provides us with vegetation to sustain life. We can either take care of it now or we will be forced to look for another way of living.




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

Who Are These People? Why Should I Care?

I am not from Los Angeles, though apparently, some people are. (who knew?) I was raised in a big southern city with a strong suburban experience. I then moved to New York City, where I finished growing up and because of that, I have a unique experience of understanding both urban and suburban environments. In New York and LA, like no other city in the States, there is an entire population of people who are out and about in the middle of the day! There they are, shopping, taking yoga, having lunch, and generally annoying me with their stupid traffic decisions. Who are they? What do they do?

Growing up, I clearly remember ditching school to go to lunch and a movie, or lunch and shopping, or shopping and a movie. Or - The Price is Right and a joint! The major upside of being out during the weekday was that no place was populated, and definitely never crowded. That was part of the reason to skip school, right? To get out of class and get away from the annoying people you see every day. The world was yours for four hours!

In LA, if you are lucky enough to get out during a weekday for lunch, or to steal some quiet time at the gym, you are decidedly not alone. At first, I thought I was unaware of some sort of national bank holiday, but slowly realized over time that it was like this every single day. I know that here in LA, many people work nights as waiters and bartenders, or doing weird data entry jobs, or are actors doing all three. But damn! Is the entire population of actors out all day, every day?! And if they are working later that evening, why the hell are they getting drunk at lunch?

Who are these people?

I only ask because lately I have a schedule that allows me a little weekday fun from time to time. For example, last week, I was lucky enough to get away to lunch with friends who were in from out of town. The whole experience was mind-blowing because I got to do the whole “go for a hike, run three errands, drive over the hill on the 405 where there was an accident, then to the 101 where there was another accident (something involving a flatbed truck carrying port-a-potty’s! ICK!) which obviously made me take surface streets the rest of the way to Studio City. Hiking, traffic, heat, headaches and lunch with friends! Another typical weekday?

And then it hit me: When did I become one of those people?




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

Box-Office Round Up : 7.27.08

1. The Dark Knight $75.6 million
2. Step Brothers $30 million
3. Mamma Mia $17.9 million
4. X-Files: I Want to Believe $10.2 million
5. Journey/Center/Earth $9.4 million


Holy Crap! My personal favourite movie to come out this year, The Dark Knight broke two more records this weekend! It now has the distinction of having the highest second weekend gross ever, and is also the film that reached the $300 million mark the fastest. (The former record was held by Shrek II, which had the benefit of opening over a holiday weekend. In regards to the latter record, no movie has ever reached the $300 million mark in the first ten days.) This picture really deserves all these accolades - if you call backing up the Brink’s truck an accolade - because it satisfies the genre needs for a superhero movie, and is also a real movie with a compelling story that is told well! Pictures that are good stories well told are always my favorites.

Step Brothers doing $30 mil is a good sign! A lot of insiders were wondering if the Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly matchup would cleanup like Talladega Nights. It did not come close to the $47 mil opening of that picture but when the number one movie has broken three records in 10 days, $30 million don’t sound so bad.

The one true disappointment would be for the X-Files: I Want to Believe. Ugh. Even I’m disappointed, I wanted to believe (wink) that this would do well even though it has been TEN YEARS since the first installment! I had heard that it was supposed to be fun! Oh well, it’s the third week in a row that Fox has not done so well. But – at least using traditional opening weekend math, the sequel will make its money back (not including prints and advertising) which is a better fate than Meet Dave.

I would also like to take a second to ponder the way that movies’ box-office receipts are reported is designed to make it into a competition as entertainment for an audience. I happen to agree, and it’s not my favourite. Why do a weekly Box-Office Round Up if I feel that way, you ask? I am attempting to challenge myself to greater understanding of what’s going on in the marketplace aspect of my industry. I am a person who loves, loves, loves this business, and the fact that our business is to attempt to make art. But the fact that our entertainment costs money to produce and we sell tickets (commercial air time, product placement, yada yada) to cover that cost means that I have a responsibility, as an artist, to at least try to understand why people choose to see what they do. Then we can begin to have an inkling of how much to spend and how to best position our ideas in the audience’s mind to cover those costs so we can all come back to do more projects in the future. Best of all, we get to discuss it together!

And that’s the weekend!




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

Frank Sinatra Has A Cold

Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something. But he said nothing; he had been silent during much of the evening. The two blondes knew, as did Sinatra's four male friends who stood nearby, that it was a bad idea to force conversation upon him when he was in this mood of sullen silence, a mood that had hardly been uncommon during this first week of November, a month before his fiftieth birthday. Sinatra was worried about his starring role in an hour-long NBC show entitled Sinatra—A Man And His Music, which would require that he sing eighteen songs with a voice that at this particular moment, just a few nights before the taping was to begin, was weak and sore and uncertain. Sinatra was ill. He was the victim of an ailment so common that most people would consider it trivial. But when it gets to Sinatra it can plunge him into a state of anguish, deep depression, panic, even rage. Frank Sinatra had a cold.

In 1966, the now legendary Gay Talese published a story in Esquire Magazine about Frank Sinatra that changed the way we think about journalism, and is heralded as ushering in a wave of what is now referred to as “New Journalism.” To be frank, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” changed the game. Never before had we read such narrative in a magazine - that kind of writing was reserved for novels. But now, forty years later, we find that this new narrative style was not the only prescient aspect of that piece. Gay Talese followed Frank (if I can be so bold) around for three months, burning through an expense account on a hunch that this could be a real treat for Esquire’s readers. So much access! So much freedom! So much scotch! And with Frank! All he had to do was write a coherent story about what he learned whilst basking in the warm glow of a legend, and it would be worth every penny. No one could have imagined that this would be the real birthplace of reality TV. Hell, I never thought of it that way myself until recently. Most think of MTV’s “The Real World” as the beginning of the reality movement. But before that, Madonna had cameras follow her around with unprecedented access during her Blond Ambition Tour in 1990. Though there had been documentaries about famous artists before that, none were granted that sort of unconditional access. We know now that even before Madonna’s “Truth or Dare”, there was Frank giving us more than anyone ever had before. As he had been doing his entire career. Gay Talese’s article is a triumph of popular literature and I love magazines.

Considering every magazine piece I have ever read in my entire life, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” is my favourite, easily and by far. Check it out, this story has informed your life if you’ve ever picked up a magazine that was published since 1966. Yes, it's true. It's that important.




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

Even Louis XVI would swoon!

Los Angeles is most often thought of as the Capital of the Entertainment Industry. Swimming Pools! Movie Stars! Grauman’s Chinese! Rodeo Drive! Harry Winston! (!!!) The Kodak Theatre! What most don’t know is that LA really is the Hamburger Capital of America. LA is as American as America can get (for being in a blue state) and what’s more American than a burger and fries? The most popular joint in town is In-N-Out Burger, hands down. This fast food chain is so intent on burgers, that burgers are the only option on the menu. Well that, and fries. Oh, and shakes! Outside of a couple of simple substitutions, that’s all they got. No chicken at all- nuggets or sando’s. Or tangerine slices for that matter, if you want to get all up in the bidness…

Imagine my surprise when I found out the one city I would call the polar opposite of Los Angeles secretly and self-consciously began serving (shudder!) hamburgers in their haute cuisine restaurants? That city is Paris.

Really. Paris, France.

It seems that since so many expatriate French chefs have come to the good old US of A to open restaurants (and put their own spin on the burgers on their menus) Parisian chefs have heard the silent okay to put them on their own menus. And these burgers are taking the city by storm! To be fair, when they are made from wagyu beef and topped with foie gras (those motherfuckers think they invented that? Apparently, they’ve never been to a drunken BBQ full of foodies and chefs!) they aren’t our parents’ burgers. Even crazier variations exist, but most importantly, the classic American burger is being offered everywhere. The fact that a burger with smoked bacon, dill pickles, ketchup/mustard on a sesame seed bun is around is a monumental change. All in the eight months since the first Starbucks opened in Paris! Coincidence? Clearly. But the tide in France seems to be subtly changing for the first time since, well... When exactly did the French have the idea to put butter on bread?

It seems like “bonne cuisine” chef Paul Bocuse has opened (gasp!) a fast food restaurant in Lyon! Yes, and apparently he is calling fast food the nouvelle cuisine! A man after my own heart! For those who don’t know, this man’s restaurant in Paris has three stars! And his new restaurant of “fine fast” food, is attached to the new Pathé Cineplex. If only the food at the ArcLight café was imagined by a three star chef?! Ouest-Express cooks its pastas in front of the “clients” and bakes bread every two hours! I can see “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and then cry into fresh pasta with a seafood sauce of mussels and squid afterwards?! Paired with a Guyot Côtes du Rhone or a Georges Duboeuf Mâcon Villages! After that movie, that’s exactly what I need!!!

Yet again, France appears to be where it’s at.




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

[insert phenomenon]

At this moment I am speechless and proud of people whom I have never met, for the first time in ages. I heard about a show that these musical theatre writers were posting on youtube. Now, these aren’t established Broadway folks, they're newcomers who wrote a show about writing a show and taking it to Broadway. They were accepted into the NY Musical Theatre Workshop and then had a sold out run Off-Broadway. All the while, they were making changes and tweaking the show so it got better. And here’s when the two writers decided to start making ten minute shorts about their process to get to Broadway to upload to their site and youtube.

Now, to recap: There is a show on YouTube chronicling this show’s trip to Broadway. The show they are chronicling is about the very same writers writing a show and trying to get it to Broadway. This show is akin to the snake that eats its own tail.

Ouroboros, motherfuckers!

The snake’s all: Yo, my butt tastes like chicken!

But wait, it gets curious-er and curious-er. Because of the YouTube show, they attracted producers interested enough to secure a move to the Great White Way! Now that’s viral marketing! (are you listening, 20th Century Fox??!!) They decided to tell the world who they were and that the rest would fall in line. I am on board completely. And I strongly suggest that you check out “The [title of show] show” on YouTube. Start with episode one, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Last week, on July 17 [title of show] opened on BROADWAY at the Lyceum Theatre! If you are in the tri-state area, get your ass to the Lyceum because this show is special. Otherwise, make a pilgrimage to New York to see this show!




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

I am.

Box-Office Round Up: 7.20.08

Thanks to the numbers being re-estimated, I had to wait a little longer than normal to get them, and was forced to eat peanut butter M&Ms to pass the time. Seriously, someone twisted my arm. By 8AM today I knew that the record would be broken, but when records are in contention, everyone wants to be sure before reporters and bloggers go and tell the world. It's an interesting process.

So, without further ado: Here’s this weekend’s box office estimates!

1. The Dark Knight $155.6 million
2. Mamma Mia! $27.6 million
3. Hancock $14 million
4. Journey/Center of the Earth $11.9 million
5. Hellboy II: The Golden Army $10 milion

7. Space Chimps $7.3 million

Well, well, well, wasn’t this quite a weekend?! The Dark Knight came in at $155 MILLION, doing even better than it was tracking and breaking all previous records! And congrats to Universal for having their own great opening with Mamma Mia. The whole world is surprised about how well it did, seeing that it’s a movie based on an ABBA musical, but it is based on one of the most successful stage musicals ever. It was a huge success in the UK and on the road in America before it even got to Broadway. My only issue, is that this project is what Meryl Streep chose to be her first movie musical? I don't know what I would have preferred to see her in, but I definitely would not have chosen a jukebox musical! Oh well, I always say that at the end of the day I'd rather see B Movies with awesome actors. The number seven movie is occupied by something called Space Chimps. I’ll admit, I’d only seen a couple of billboards that barely registered in my brain (awesome marketing!) and I had to watch the trailer before I wrote this. Apparently, it’s animated.

We know that The Dark Knight had a high level of interest because the first installment was so good, but also because of the extremely sad, surprising and untimely death of Heath Ledger this past winter. Mr. Ledger’s penultimate performance is nothing short of revelatory, the performance of a lifetime. The Variety review said his performance makes previous Jokers look like clowns, and Nicholson was good! Heath’s inspired performance is liberating, fresh, funny and fucking scary. It is, at once, intensely theatrical and subtle. I must admit, he was so good that I teared up thinking about how amazing this actor was becoming, and what we will never get to see...

This is a good movie, and was far darker than expected. For me, this is the best comic book adaptation/superhero movie I have ever seen, and I am a fan of the genre. So kudos to Chris Nolan and the rest of his gang, I hope that they are proud of their work. I sure am.

And that's the weekend!




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

One. Week. Old.

I think that this would be a good time to talk about dreams. Everyone is well aware how ambitious the people in LA are, the entire Entertainment Industry is here. What people don’t expect is the fact that most people are here because they have/had dreams that really surpass(ed) their desires for fame. Indeed, a lot of people here get lost because they forget to follow their actual dreams. The dreams that inspired their days, and gleefully kept them up at night. The ones that helped them connect with other people, and helped them view the world in a way that made sense. And to be fair, it is quite easy living in LA, to get away from everything that is actually important. To be frank, it’s a great place to live. The weather is fantastic the whole year round! Our winter feels like early fall for most of America. You can do things outdoors every day, even when it rains. And the sun. Oh, the SUN! This doesn’t even bring up all the distractions that things like the Sunset Strip cause.

But – dreams are important. They are much more important than we realize. Consciously or subconsciously, we live by them. They determine our emotions about our lives. I firmly believe that dreams are a major reason for being on this planet. Our innermost desires, beyond self-serving ideas, are most likely thoughts about bringing us all together. We will get distracted, if we want to be distracted. We can feel helpless, if we so choose. But chew on this, maybe every obstacle we encounter is meant to bring us closer to our dreams and not farther away. I don’t assume it’s meant to be easy, and I can’t prove what’s out there in the Universe, but I refuse to believe that we were put on this planet to be unhappy and unfulfilled.

Never. Give. Up.


This special edition is dedicated to April and Joshua.




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

This is the start of award season? Really?

Very early this morning, the nominations for the 2008 Emmy Awards were announced. (How many awards are there anyway? I began counting and then gave up, it’s that many. If you know the answer, please feel free to comment) Happily, I was not at the press conference because I fully understand what that entails. Most of America sees clips of the conference where two stars announce the noms as if it were an ordinary occurrence. What most don’t understand is because of the time difference, this happens at FIVE AM on the West Coast. Being on camera at five means being in hair/makeup at 2:30, and if you don’t live down the street, then you have to get up in time to make the commute! Why bother going to bed? You may be having your Dunkin’ Donuts, Boston, but in LA it’s the bloody middle of the night.

Lucky for everyone involved, especially the audience, television is in a Golden Age. We have been saying for the last ten years that programming on TV has never been better, thanks to HBO raising the bar. And now, winning an Emmy or even being nominated can be something to feel very proud about. The thought has even crossed my mind that television’s place in popular culture has taken the place of what Broadway was in its Golden Age. I know, I know, that is not fun to hear at all, especially not for me. But when it comes down to it, there is simply more quality programming on television then there ever has been, and that is a feat to be celebrated. There is also much more trashy content than ever, but I suppose with TV everybody deserves to be entertained.

So Congratulations to all the Emmy Nominees, (especially Audra McDonald whom I’ve had a professional crush on since 1994, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, 30 ROCK and Mad Men) you all deserve to be recognized for all the hard work that you’ve done simply to give me a break from my life.

Post Script : we're trying to figure out why the tags are being published in Hindi. We're happy to be read in India, but dag, we like being read in English too.




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

The American Riviera

Call me elitist, but in California, I prefer the beaches of Malibu to any other. (If warmth was not a factor, then Baker Beach in San Francisco wins hands down.) Malibu is a real schlep from Hollywood, but easily worth the trip. The beaches are beautiful, and Zuma Beach in particular faces southwest which means that you will get more sun all day long than if it faced just west or east. Saying that it is a clean beach makes me seem somewhat girlie, but sue me if I think having to watch for hypodermic needles in the sand is tired. You get the mountains to look at and no dogs are allowed. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs! But in LA, if everyone brought their dogs to the beach, it would get seriously noisy and I enjoy hearing the waves crash. I only found out about the dog rule a couple of days ago, when the people next to me had two extremely adorable and admittedly bitty dogs with them. These were some very cool, happy and playful dogs. Ten minutes after they had settled (which, by the way was just enough time for them to apply sunblock and get their salad lunch together and start eating. I was impressed by the fact that they were able to toss a fucking salad at the beach like it wasn’t no thang, you know…?) SO- five bites into their salad, no less than three Malibu Police Officers ride up on four-wheeled ATVs. I don’t hear what is said, but I just knew it was about the dogs. Luckily, they didn’t get a ticket, cause Malibu Cops don’t play. They pack up and leave, which is the saddest of all because unless you live in Malibu proper, Zuma isn’t close to anywhere in LA, it’s even 20 minutes from Santa Monica.

Being 20 minutes from Santa Monica is what makes Zuma different from every other LA beach. It is not the crowd than you would expect. The distance keeps a lot of people away, and the people that do come are truly beach people. Best of all, it is much more than a mix of upper class Malibu residents, it’s a good cross-section of the Los Angeles middle class in general. People of every color, shape and size all play together happily, and it’s all so friendly. People go to play in the water and leave their stuff on their blankets without the worry of theft. And when the sea gulls try to take their food, we shoo them away, even going as far as hiding the food in their beach bags. I have gone to the bathroom and asked my blanket neighbor to look after my stuff because I was alone, and packing up would have been a major waste of time.

Zuma also happens to be down the hill from Malibu High School. I cannot imagine what life would be like going to high school two blocks from one of the greatest beaches in the continental US. It is so close to the school that students often surf at lunch! Crikey! In late spring, when it’s hot enough to swim but school is still in session, this beach is a popular destination for the kids to skip class. I know that’s where I’d be. As soon as I saw the high school, I immediately felt I’d be doing my imaginary future children a disservice by not living in Malibu and sending them to school there, it’s that great.

Zuma is an old school beach, with lifeguard towers, and food shacks that are permanent structures that are architecturally the same as the lookout tower/helipad and restrooms/showers. There is something distinctly Euro about having permanent buildings where you can get real cooked food, and sit in a chair on concrete under an umbrella or awning. They even play house music from time to time! The landscape is such a chaparral, the water is so azure, that it is easy to call Malibu the American Riviera.




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

Christopher and Madonna Louise

What is this, the old days? Madonna is touring the world to support a hit record, her marriage may or not be on the rocks and is the cover story of every single tabloid in every single store, her latest video features her dancing in her underwear, and her brother Christopher is writing a nasty-but-true tell all book about every single thing he knows about the most famous woman in the world. I feel like a kid again! All information regarding the book says this will be the definitive portrait of Madonna, and will expose every aspect of her life, personality, morals, sexual desires, hair color, etc. The inside word from the Madonna people is that the book’s contents are so revealing that it’s release will permanently freeze Chris out of her life forever, it’s that damning.

This is an interesting situation. Christopher truly knows Madonna in a way that her other siblings do not. In fact, he was such a part of her entire career up until she became Mrs. Ritchie, that by 1990 he moved up to the position of Artistic Director for the Blond Ambition World Tour, and was the stage director/production designer for The Girlie Show. They lived in the same house during and after her divorce from Sean Penn. Shit, he’s even in the video for Lucky Star, shaking it as one of her backup dancers. This man actually knows what the fuck he’s talking about.

Why would a brother do this to the sister he so clearly loved, respected and took care of emotionally? He was allowed so much access and privilege that it just seems tacky to bite the hand that fed him so elegantly. What went on between these siblings that would allow him turn his back on her so easily? And exactly how long has he been planning this book?

But the real question is why am I going to buy it…?




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

Box-Office Round Up: 7.13.08

Here’s this weekend’s box office estimates!

1. Hellboy II: The Golden Army $35.8 million
2. Hancock $33.0 million
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth $20.5 million
4. Wall•E $18.5 million
5. Wanted $11.6 million

7. Meet Dave $5.3 million

Now this was an interesting weekend. Hellboy II performed as expected, and is now halfway to making its money back. Huzzah for Guillermo del Toro! The man is an imaginative genius, and completely deserves to make pictures as long as he is on this planet. Journey/Center of the Earth performed as was expected for a movie based on a Jules Verne novel, even though it had a decent review in Variety. The real question is why do we keep making movies based on Jules Verne novels when nobody shows up for them, even if they are in stunning 3D digital? To be fair, $20 million is nothing to sneeze at, but traditional opening weekend math says this picture will barely make back its production costs during its theatrical release, which gives DVD and TV the burden of earning back the cost of prints/advertising. Historically, this is not a sound model for a tentpole. At least they’re doing better than Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy is Eddie Murphy in Meet Dave. I won’t comment on what I thought of the trailer, but with a weekend gross of $5.3 million, America sure did. The only way it could have been a bigger flop is if Fox spent more money on it. It begs the question, why does Eddie Murphy keep making these movies, only to have no one show up to see them? My advice to Mr. Murphy is to get the hell back on a standup tour to find himself again. Marriages and kids and a cancelled Oscar Award (which happened because of a movie like this) could definitely make you lose your edge, so go create a real Eddie Murphy Standup Act. That’s how we fell in love with you in the first place! And it could quite possibly inspire some screenwriter to write a fresh vehicle for your renewed persona.

And that’s the weekend!




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

GRILL SEASON!

Today we are including the first of Soccerboy’s favourite recipes. A Recipe?! That’s right kids, a recipe. You don’t have to be Thomas Keller to know that at some point, you’re going to have to eat real food instead of some crap that was created in a lab. It might as well be something that tastes good, and hell, it’s grilled. You’re okay.

Grilled Lamb Steak

lamb leg steaks or chops
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
juice of one lime
garlic cloves, minced
fresh rosemary, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together in a bowl, drop lamb in, cover and refrigerate at least one hour. Halfway through marinating time, flip steaks over and return them to the fridge.

Throw them onto a hot grill. FLIP ONLY ONCE. But you already knew that, didn't you?

You can also roast this in a 375 degree oven, or on top of the stove with olive oil and butter.

Hint: Use real butter. In fact, throw out every fake butter product that lives in your fridge right this second. They may be lower in fat, but they are also much higher in chemicals. And wouldn’t you prefer to get your chemicals from something else…?

This goes well with any salad, potatoes (mashed, fried or au gratin), sautéed spinach, asparagus, or broccoli. Anything really, but for the love of all that’s holy, make sure to throw in a vegetable!

OH - you might be surprised to find that lamb is much more affordable nowadays. If you are lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe's, their lamb steaks are cheaper than traditional beef steak!




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

21st Century Life

Call him crazy, call him ambitious, call him whatever you want, but Gavin Newsom is one smart motherfucker. The City of San Francisco is implementing a new wireless network designed to alert drivers to open parking spaces on the city streets. (whaaat??!!) You’ll even be able to access a map of open spaces from your smartphone. Apparently, the Future is much more futuristic than we had previously imagined. Not only is this handy, but this service will greatly reduce San Francisco’s carbon footprint. How? Studies are showing that 30% of traffic congestion in SF is caused by drivers circling blocks looking for parking. Now that’s progress!

The real question is when the hell will The City of Los Angeles implement a similar service? The same study showed that drivers cruising for parking in LA created the equivalent of 38 trips around the world, burning 47,000 gallons of gasoline and producing 730 tons of carbon dioxide. And that’s just downtown.

Clearly, this is worth looking into.




© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.

Summer In LA

In case you've missed this crazy place, even a little, here's what's going on the second week of July, 2008.

In-N-Out still exists. You can relax.

Check out what Jason Biggs is up to. (and probably me too next week...) Twilight at the club

Madonna and Guy actually might be splitting up. It's the cover of EVERY TABLOID. No, really. Every single one.

You can't talk on a cell phone while driving without a headset, and cops are giving out tickets like candy. Up at Donner, Nevada is ten minutes away, so all weekend everyone was always asking "Can I talk on a cell phone here? And what fucking time is it?!" Apparently Nevada is on Mountain Time.

Select Starbucks Locations (mine, of course) are beginning to offer Sorbetto, which is really close to an Italian Ice. It's seriously good, and should take off like a space shuttle.

Matt and Kacy had their baby, Joshua, yesterday!

A single track of Kate Moss' hair extensions fell off her head and onto the RED CARPET. I love me some Kate, but it doesn't get much better than that.

Kitson on Robertson will debut a new clothing line this fall by - wait for it - Michael Jackson!

The Pinkberry on Sunset across from Rock and Roll Ralph's is open till 2AM on the weekends. So much healthier than Denny's after the club!

And that's Summer in LA!


© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.