Archive: Diversion

First he wants to build a wall to keep out the Americans with their problems.

Grace Slick greets the dawn on Max Yasgur's farm on August 17, 1969. Turn up the sound.

What better way to educate Angelenos about the shutdown of a major boulevard than a spoof of SNL's The Californians.

With David Letterman's TV run coming near the end, his writers of the past reveal the jokes they wish they had been allowed to put on the air.

First came the almond farmers, then the cantaloupes, then the golf courses — and so on.

As April Fools Day stories go in alt weeklies, this one's pretty good.

Oh why not? Compliments of New York Magazine's Vulture site.

Bruce Feirstein, the Los Angeles-based contributor to Vanity Fair, devotes this month's investigative VF chart to a compare-and-contrast.

Assuming you like Stefani, Shelton or Fallon. You don't even have to like all three.

David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, La Marisoul and artists in Mexico, Argentina, Mali and Congo strum and sing through "La Bamba."

There used to be a car club in Los Angeles -- maybe still is -- devoted to 1957 Chevys. The hold of that model and year is now the subject of a book on the backstory of a single car.

"Oh Say Can You Sing: ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ in Popular Music" opens September 12. Yes, Hendrix at Woodstock is featured. Plus: A bonus 'O Canada.'

On this day in 1974, President Richard Nixon delivered a live TV address from the White House revealing he would resign. Harry Shearer reenacts the final minutes.

True fact: the entire city of Los Angeles is closed on Thursdays so everyone can catch up on "Game of Thrones."

"This is probably one of the coolest videos you’ll see all week: ridiculously attractive people jumping from ridiculously dangerous heights," says website.

Justin Edwards and his drone camera lingered above two humpback whales swimming in the channel off Maui on Valentine's Day.

Sample Q: How will the merger affect the price of my cable service? A: We will be introducing financing options, roughly similar to those that enabled you to attend college.

Caesar and Reiner spoof another popular staple of 1950s TV, "This is Your Life."

The luxuriant dessert at Pizzeria Mozza threatens to sue over a so-so review. Read the press release.

This might be the most beautiful surfing video you have seen (and heard.) Meanwhile, the National Weather Service warns of very big waves on all of Hawaii's islands this week.

Number 5 on the New York Times Travel section's feature on 52 places to visit this year is Downtown Los Angeles. Right after Albania and before Namibia.

"This is not the first time I have passed out cold," KUTV's Brooke Graham blogs cheerily. "I am known to faint any time I am in high altitudes and get too cold. (So does my twin sister Britt)."

The end of the world as we know it, as might be reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, TMZ, Twitter, Instagram and others.

Breaking my posting fast with a short video.

Well done — nails a minor scourge of our time. From XKCD: The comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.

After starting in Chicago, Don Cornelius migrated "Soul Train" to Los Angeles and national syndication. This clip with the theme from "Shaft" is from Oct. 1971.

"Hey Joe" at the Monterey Pop Festival. Hendrix died Sept. 18, 1970.

Josh Joy Kamensky helped stage Eric Garcetti's first campaign for office out of his Silver Lake apartment. As an OG, and as a writer who can be amusing, he offers some suggestions to the new mayor.

"Dear Hollywood Wax Museum," says a story in Vice. "I recently visited your Los Angeles location and was exceptionally disappointed with what I saw...It was all of your waxworks. They look like something from the nightmares of a person who has been blind since birth and has no real concept of what human beings look like."

BuzzFeed listicle gets it right about Los Angeles driving and parking. The reality is even more scary.

Check out street scenes of London in 1927, in a nice soft color reminiscent of an old postcard, but in five minutes of moving images. The footage was shot by British film pioneer Claude Friese-Greene.

"This American Life" last weekend re-aired a classic episode from 1998 in which David Sedaris sings the Oscar Mayer advertising ditty in his best Billie Holiday voice. Luckily, someone has harvested just that 0:51 fragment and put it on YouTube. Listen inside.

In this film made for MOCA TV, Chloe Sevigny bitches about everything in LA and pees in front of the camera — it's amusing and moreso when the twists occur at the end.

A bit of brilliance from the Science and Technology desk at The Onion.

An eagle owl flying toward a camera at 1,000 frames a second.

British website The Poke (slogan Time well wasted) posted a poem containing most of the pronunciation variances you're ever likely to encounter in speaking English.