Having begun the year the way I suspect many of you did — watching the Rose Parade — afterward I, too, found my attention drifting during the parade’s namesake bowl game (bless their hearts, they tried, oh, how they tried). Not being a USC football fan, well, I lap-topped my laptop, grabbed my trusty mechanical pencil in hand and… doodled — not just any doodle, but doodled my first coloring page of 2009, one that fittingly celebrates one of ’08’s highlights: Charles’ Moonlight Rollerway Holiday Jubilee! (exclamation marks are compulsory following “jubilee”, right?).

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Two bits of information you’ll need in order to make sense of these photos: 1) Reid is amazingly cheap, 2) his cat, Lynx, is fiercesome. All else is digression.

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Even I’ve noticed that silhouettes have experienced a resurgence, to the point that they’re now blase (peaking last May at 3:20PM). Great! It’s time to jump on the bandwagon, or be the 300th person on a 100-person capacity refurbished WWII ferry heading out into Manila Bay’s choppy, shark infested waters! Here’s some suggestions for making your own silhouettes.
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Funtastic evening over at Moonlight Rollerway Skating Rink — retro-holiday slideshow, ice cream (eaten from cups with wooden, flat spoons), then dozens of kids (& adults) put on a heckuva salute to all the year’s holidays (think “Holiday Inn” with Charles as Bing Crosby), finally it was “all skate” time!

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This is lame, but there have been times when I’ve wanted to hang a “Good Neighbor” note on someone’s front door. Sometimes it’s just simple or conscientious landscaping, or a great concrete deer collection (big bonus points for an upside-down ceramic squirrel on the siding), and other times it’s for getting into the spirit of a thing. We’re not talking Martha Stewart fussiness, but fun-itude. With this in mind: there’s a house, just around the corner from the library and train station, that puts on an incredible show. It’s on our list of “musts” for Christmas and Halloween. Here’s a couple pictures.

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Ludlow at Pershing Square Ice Skating Rink, downtown Los Angeles

Had a fun time wandering around downtown LA with Angelenic enthusiasts, including fellow MySpacers Rob, Brandon, and Rowan. Met many great folks (howdy, Diana, Natalie, Claudia, Ramone, Sal, Jennifer, and Sue — golly, hope I didn’t make-up anyone’s name wrong). Rich did a fine job wrangling ~100 people, having expected about 50. Didn’t make it to LA Live in time for Britney Spears (oh, drat), but walk ’twas a pleasant one (route), taking in City Hall’s tree, the Music Center, and Pershing Square’s skating rink before hitting LA Live.

It’s Christmas, time to buy, buy, buy so why not plunk down a little change on something unique, original… something you can give (or wear, you selfish dog, you) proudly? Check out Robotribe Apparel’s great screen printed tees by none other than our own Ted. His recognizable style — clean, thrifty lines — really plays well with these limited-color-palette prints.

Was recently talking with friends when the conversation lit upon the unrivaled Bob Baker Marionette Theater and its crazy-great Holiday shows, a true timewarp/throw-back granting anyone who wishes, if even just temporarily, to see Christmas through kid’s eyes. So I knocked out this coloring book page, cuz, that’s apparently what I do lately when I have a cold: fan art.
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Superman Painting

Hey, forgot to mention that I won two of the four items I’d bid! All items up for auction at the “Goonies” screening were original art inspired by children’s films of the ’80’s. I’m proudly walking away with “Annie” and “Superman” paintings.

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I was just too old to see “The Goonies” during its first run in 1985 so getting to see it at the Rialto with an enthusiastic crowd was quite a treat. The evening was a fundraiser for The Those Guys Charity, the evening’s proceeds, from door donations and a silent auction, went to Donors’ Choose

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Blambot designs terrific comic fonts — for speech, sound effects, or headlines — adding new ones every month or so. Many are free. Sign-up for their once-monthly mailing list to be notified of new fonts.