Get Down In Chinatown This Saturday!

You may or may not know that Los Angeles' Chinatown is celebrating its 72nd birthday on Saturday, with a big '40s-themed bash in Central Plaza on Broadway.

The party lasts from 7 to 11 p.m. and will feature Chinese, American and Chinese American entertainment. The price? Like totally free!

Operative reports relayed to The Militant indicate that free strawberry cakes courtesy of Phoenix Bakery will be given away as part of the celebration.

According to ChinatownLA.com, there will be free valet parking at 950 N. Hill St starting at 5 p.m., but of course, that's gonna be crazypackedbackeduptrafficlongwait, so you're gonna be taking the (M) Gold Line or riding your bike there, right?

Los Angeles history buffs know that the 24-block Los Angeles' Chinatown is actually Chinatown 2.0, dedicated in 1938. Chinatown 1.0, established circa 1870, was originally located a few blocks to the southeast, on the other side of Alameda, and was moved to make room for the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, otherwise known as Union Station.

Today, Chinatown is still going strong as a cultural tourism destination, with a handful of late-night eateries, bars and art galleries. Plus there's this real cool park next door.

Check out this FunnyOrDie.Com video from Hollywood stuntman Steven Ho (a recurring guest on the now-unfortunately-defunct Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien), who made this viral flick for the Coco crowd in April. You'll see some very familiar sights:

Asian Conan Ep. 1 - watch more funny videos

GE3kin' Out At The Convention Center: The Militant Takes On The E3 Expo!

This week the Militant satisfied his inner geek as the Electonic Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as E3, descended upon the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The international trade-only convention, geared towards the video game industry, is one of the largest annual events at the Convention Center and has taken place here in DTLA for most every year since 1995 (it was held in Santa Monica in 2007).

Admittedly, the Militant may or may not be a diehard video gamer (well, he definitely was one back in the day), but definitely wanted to see what all the noise was all about, especially since an unspecified sibling of his got him a convention badge hookup on Thursday.

The West and South halls of the Convention Center were a whiz-bang whirlwind of lights an noise, as if a thousand video arcades blew up at the same time. For the past few years, the focus has been on the Big Three video game console manufacturers: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft (makers of the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, respectively). This year, Nintendo showed off their new 3DS portable gaming system; Sony unveiled its PlayStation Move motion controller (pictured right) and MS wowed all geekery by one-upping Sony with its Xbox Kinect controller-less motion controller.

One of the highlights of the convention were the premieres of cinematic-style video game trailer presentations (much to the same degree movie trailers are presented) -- most notably, the Tron Evolution and Star Wars: The Old Republic game trailers had the most OMG factor in the show.

The rest of the show featured free swag (the black convention bags were of the same design as reusable shopping bags -- the Militant grabbed a few!), hot chicks passing out free swag, robot statues, and even the random celeb sighting (LeVar Burton of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow fame was spotted hanging out at the IndieCade booth, pictured left).

It wasn't just the Big Three consoles represented, though, video games of all platforms and genres were featured, from PCs to iPads to a few arcade games (such as the 4-player Pac-Man game - now there's some games the Militant is familiar with...uhhh wait, did he just give away his age there?).

The Militant also found the time to meet up with some of his operatives who work in the video game industry. No word yet on whether a Militant Angeleno video game will or won't be released (but if it will, expect some freaking awesome combat action against a backdrop of beloved Los Angeles locales).

Thursday being the final day of the convention, come 5 p.m., the noise died down, the colored flashing spectacles gave way to the sobering houselights and the throngs of attendees spilled out of the Convention Center, only to cross paths with the throngs of purple-and-gold-clad ticketholders bound for the Staples Center to witness the Lakers usher in a back-to-back NBA championship. In other words, the scene on the street at 5:30 p.m. was, "LAKE3RS."

Next year, the mighty Lakers may or may not Three-Peat. But E3 will return, June 7-9, Twenty-Eleven.

The Militant's Suggestions On How To Prevent Post-Laker Championship Rioting

It's that time of the year, peoples. The Lakers may or may not have it in the fridge with the jello jiggling and alla dat, but some stupidass muddafuggas be knockin' that fridge over and setting it ablaze, thereby confirming the notions of East Coasters, Midwsterners and Northern Californians that Angelenos are some sort of inferior life form.

On Thursday, the LAPD plans to have the entire DTLA South Park area on lockdown, preventing people without tickets from entering the vicinity (But what if you were in the area for the big E3 Expo next door?).

Well, the Militant, who knows Los Angeles like no other, has a few fail-proof suggestions for y'all to avoid harm, destruction and further damage to our collective urban reputation. Mr. Mayor, City Council, Chief Beck, AEG and Jerry Buss -- the Militant Angeleno hereby asks you take heed of the following:

1. Get Kobe Bryant to go out after the game, address everyone outside and say, "Yo, if you''re gonna riot, there won't be no Laker parade." But he gots to be dressed up like this.

2. Hand out free vuvuzelas to everyone. Sure, there will be one loud, annoying, buzzing, B-flat drone emanating from Downtown Los Angeles for an hour and a half, but let's face it, no one's gonna be smashing windows, torching trash cans, overturning cars or stealing merchandise when they have a vuvuzela in their mouth.

3. Show Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" video up on those big-ass LA Live HD video screens. Just sayin'.

4. Stage one ginormous Michael Jackson "Thriller" flash mob right there at Figueroa and Chick Hearn Ct. Come on, it's Michael Jackson.

5. Send in the food trucks. All of them. Everyone loves food trucks. Okay, well, except these guys.

6. Send in the cast of "Glee" to do some cheesy song-and-dance routine to a popular cover song. That seems to make people happy for some reason, so inevitably it will curb one's spontaneous urge to engage in violent activity. Hard to believe? Don't stop believin'!

7. Project the movie "Sex and the City 2" on the Ritz-Carlton Building. If that don't work, nothing will.

8. Have Mayor Villaraigosa show up in front of the crowd so everyone will boo him. People will spend all their energy booing, no one's gonna riot. They're gonna be doing that during the Laker Victory Celebration anyway, so we might as well let everyone get it out of their system.

9. Blank out the entire 4th quarter of the game on TV and Radio, and make everyone believe the Celtics won the game. Then at 7 a.m., make a public announcement that goes, "Just kidding. The Lakers are NBA Champs!" Everyone will be able to watch the 4th Quarter on YouTube later on anyway.

10. Have everyone there mutually agree not to riot, but send Tweets/Facebook updates/text messages telling people as if they were. Their friends aren't gonna know the difference.

A Sharrow Is Born!

Last night, as the Militant was riding his bike along Fountain Avenue in East Hollywood, he saw something truly cool - subcontractors for the City painting shared-lane markings, also known as "sharrows," meant to indicate the shared use of a traffic lane between autos and bicycles. A familiar sight in places like Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles is finally looking at implementing these citywide via a pilot program, installing them in four locations. These Fountain avenue sharrows were first applied on Friday, and the job for the one-mile section of Fountain between Vermont and Western was completed on Tuesday night.

The Militant chatted with one of the crews who applied the sharrows, who worked for a company called SEI, subcontracted by the City of Los Angeles' Bureau of Street Services. He said it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to apply each sharrow, which consists of three templates (the left and right sides of the bike icon and the double arrow chevron), which are lined up against reference markings on the road. A paint roller cart does two passes over each stencil and some magic pixie dust is sprinkled over the whole thing.

Okay, okay, it's not magic pixie dust, but "glass beads," the crewman said, which adds reflective properties to the sharrow. Check out the video above to see how they do it!

The crews had a busy night ahead (the Militant was there at about 11 p.m.), they were off to 4th Street between Western and Normandie to paint some sharrows there.

Atwater Villagers Celebrate A Century

The Militant spent a good part of his sunny Sunday afternoon partaking in the Atwater Village Centennial Street Festival.

Several hundred people descended upon the 3100 block of Glendale Blvd, where the southbound lanes were blocked off for the fest (street traffic was routed through Larga and Glenhurst avenues).

It was a neighborhood festival in every sense of the word, bringing out the Friends of Atwater Village, the local neighborhood council and the local residents association. There were arts and crafts vendors, music and dance entertainment, a trackless train ride and food (the weekly farmer's market at the nearby Wells Fargo parking lot ran a little longer on Sunday, and the Vesuvio, Baby's Badass Burgers, Kabob N'Roll and King Kone food trucks represented.

There were even pet adoptions, and local issue-oriented booths from California High-Speed Rail (which will run along the AWV's northern border) to saving the Van De Kamp's Bakery site. And yes, what would a street festival be complete without an appearance by councilman Tom LaBonge (pictured right) - who represents a portion of AWV.

There are neighborhood festivals all over this great city, but this one was centered around history (which is the main reason why the Militant made it a point to bike his ass over here).
The AWV is celebrating its 100th anniversary, which actually came in February, when the community at the time joined numerous towns and unincorporated areas that year in voting to annex themselves into the City of Los Angeles to gain access to summadat Owens Valley water. Incidentally, for most of the past century, the AWV was actually known simply as "Atwater," and it wasn't until the late 1980s when the name "Atwater Village" came into use (derived from a community sign once placed on the Glendale Blvd median which read, "Welcome to Atwater: A village within a city").

There were pictures galore of things like old Red Cars running through Glendale Blvd, and advertisements of old businesses in the Village. The nearby Artology 101 gallery had several historical pictures on display. The Friends of Atwater Village was also promoting the production of AWV's own Arcadia Publishing "Images of America" book, slated to be published by early 2011.

Pictures are always fascinating, but the best kind of history is the kind that has been passed down for generations - oral history. The Militant met a native Atwater Villager named Michael who recalled a time when he and some friends rode their bikes through the concreted Los Angeles River bed in his youth, and would race against the rich kids who biked down from Los Feliz. But the more working-class AWV kids knew where all the potholes in the concrete were, and when challenged by the rich kids, they would pick the course, only to sabotage the Los Feliz kids to win the race.

Years later, Michael met someone through his professional work who engaged in a conversation about growing up near the Los Angeles River. Turned out the other person was one of those rich Los Feliz kids.

Like the Militant always says, Los Angeles is really a small town. It just happens to have a lot of concrete.

In Memoriam, Former Dodger Jose Lima

Baseball is a game that requires no clock. The rules of the game are relatively timeless. Most players start out as fresh-faced rookies, become hardened pros and age gracefully into their elder years, some of them shared symbols of many generations.

Jose Lima wasn't one of them. But instead, in 2004, he delighted True Blue fans for a season, and by single-handedly winning the first postseason game for the Dodgers since 1988, became etched into Los Angeles sports lore almost to Gibsonian levels. But fellow players and fans alike just remembered him as a really good-natured and fun dude who enjoyed the life that was given to him.

Stay Militant, Jose Lima.

More Commuter Amenities Coming To Union Station!

For all you commuters riding into and out of Union Station every morning, here's some exciting news: According to operative reports obtained on Friday, additional food amenities will be coming to the transportation terminal in late June.

Peet's Coffee and Tea, Wetzel's Pretzels and Subway
(the latter further confirms the Militant's observation that one can order a footlong within a 2-block radius of a (M) Red Line station) will be joining Union Bagel, Traxx Restaurant and Bar and Relay Newsstand to serve commuters at the 71-year old train depot.

Come August, the Japanese-owned Famima!! (can't forget the double exclamation marks) convenience store will arrive, to be located next to the Amtrak ticketing office. To make room for it, the Amtrak ticket machines have been relocated next to the Metrolink ticket kiosks, and the Hertz and Budget car rental desks have been moved to a different location near the Amtrak ticket booth.

These new additions won't quite make Los Angeles Union Station into its counterpart in the Nation's Capital, but it brings new life into a station that was once a bustling transportation hub in the 1940s-50s, which was revived some 20 years ago (after a near-vacant period in the 1970s-80s) with the arrival of the (M) Red Line and Metrolink commuter rail.

Even though these are chain establishments, the Militant nonetheless welcomes these additions to Union Station, which despite its rail renaissance is still a sorely underused facility. It would certainly prep the terminal for its inevitable role in the long-anticipated California High Speed Rail network. The Militant would love to see, at least in the near future, a weekly farmer's market in the station property's open space and the re-opening of the former Harvey House restaurant space on the southern end of the station - maybe a new location for the local Du-par's coffee shop chain?

On Location: 'Train'-spotting in Echo Park

It's no secret that Los Angeles is one of the most-filmed cities in the world, whether standing in for itself or another city, but oftentimes the Militant will be watching a movie, television show, commercial or music video and go, "The Militant knows where that is!" This is the first of an infrequent series on the Militant Angeleno's blog called "On Location" that pinpoints their filming locations here in town.

The Militant has been hearing some catchy pop tune lately that makes lyrical references to Mr. Mister and Madonna, and just found out it's the song, "Hey, Soul Sister" from the alt-pop band Train - yes, that same Train that gave us "Hey Virginia" and "Drops of Jupiter" that became daily fodder on the old incarnation of Star 98.7.

Anyway, the music video for that song (window plays above) features a recognizable locale for the Militant; a little, way-off hipstermagnet corner of Echo Park embedded in the hills a half-mile north of Sunset, right at the corner of Echo Park Avenue and Delta Street. The cafe the band is playing in front of is none other than Chango Coffee.

Of course, they're not the first "Train" to show up in that part of town; the old Pacific Electric Echo Park Avenue Line ran there until 1950.

The Missing Link

Saturday was National Train Day again, which the Militant covered last year during its Union Station festivities.

This year, the Union Station goings-on was nearly identical, so the Militant decided to take it a step further and visit the National Train Day events in San Bernardino. And not only that, but to take in the full meaning of the day and travel strictly by train the entire day - steel wheels for real - making a 120-mile round trip journey entirely rail.

He started, of course with a quick dash on the (M) Red Line to Union Station, sampling the festivities there and hopping on the (very crowded) 11:50 a.m. train to San Berdoo via Metrolink. It was then when the Militant realized this was his first Metrolink journey in a loooong-ass time; the last he remembered riding it was sometime in 2003.

The ride to San Berdoo was mush as he remembered it, yet it had been so long that it almost seemed entirely new to him: zipping past cars on the 10 east; flying through El Monte, wondering why the El Monte Busway station and the El Monte Metrolink station are not one in the same; rolling past single-story suburban backyards, rugged industrial areas and being dwarfed by the peaks of the San Gabriels; and passing by exotically unfamiliar sights like the ginormous Auto Club (California) Speedway in Fontana.

After an hour and a half, the Militant finally arrived in San Bernardino's depot, itself a historic train station even outdating Union Station by 21 years (built 1918). There he saw a historic Santa Fe steam locomotive (which the Militant got to climb into), with several restored passenger cars coupled behind it. The San Bernardino Station even has its own transportation museum, and for the day there was also a rail/transportation-related outdoor bazaar, selling model trains, railroad souvenirs, model trucks and t-shirts. And unlike Los Angeles Union Station, there was an active freight transfer facility on the other side of the tracks, with freight trains making an occasional show for the NTD crowd.

Also, one of the newly-unveiled Metrolink crash-resistant railcars was on display here, along with a modern BNSF locomotive.

The Militant returned back to Union Station on the 4:10 p.m. train, looked around for a bit, and then hopped back on the Red Line to return to his compound.

For the thousands of Metrolink riders who take the train to or from work, it's just another way of commuting to take for granted. But not having the opportunity to ride the 'Link as often put things into a different perspective for him: The Militant took to the rails on Saturday, not just because he wanted to, but because he could.

Don't Crash This Party: Metrolink Introduces New Railcars

While folks are celebrating Mexican St. Patrick's Day today, Metrolink is doing a little celebrating of its own, unveiling the first two of their cab control cars built in response to the September 12, 2008 tragic collision between a Metrolink train and a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Twenty-five people lost their lives and 135 were injured in the worst commuter rail accident in American history.

So today in Colton, Metrolink officials revealed their new cars, meant to ride on the opposite end of the train as the locomotive, to provide a means to control the train when it's traveling with the locomotive on the tail end. In other words, while the train appears like it's going "backwards," there is an engineer on the last car of the train controlling it, which is what happened on that tragic day on 9/12/08. The new cars, built by Hyundai Rotem of South Korea, are engineered with a "crumple zone" that maximizes structural integrity in the event of a collision while minimizing casualties. And on top of that they come with a new teal-and-silver look for the commuter rail agency, which replaces the now-unfortunate-looking logo introduced nearly 20 years ago, a brand that was designed by an Art Center College of Design student.

Check out the video above, produced by the Orange Country Transportation Authority.