It's always a bummer when you run out of beer during the big game. Thanks to Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bud Light drinkers in Washington, DC won't have to trek to the nearest store to replenish their supply. The company announced an app today that allows ...

The geeked-out Boca Raton villa of entrepreneur and producer Marc Bell just listed for $35 million, making it in all likelihood the most expensive Star Trek shrine of all time. Curbed National has the lowdown on this over-the-top curio cavern, which boasts a Call of Duty-themed gaming den and a ballroom stocked with vintage arcade cabinets. [Curbed National]

Through the hard work and tireless fundraising of one science fiction enthusiast, Hollywood might get its first science fiction museum in 2015. Superfan Huston Huddleston's personal quest to build the museum seems to have started when he rescued the Enterprise D bridge from Star Trek: The Next Generation, then decaying on a studio backlot; he spent $7,000 to have it shipped to his backyard and is now restoring it to be the centerpiece of the museum, reports The Wrap. Meanwhile, he's accumulated props and sets from TV shows and movies including Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Who—so many, in fact, that he'll probalby need a hangar-like space at this point just to house it all.

But this isn't just a vanity museum: Huddleston's goal (as explained in his Kickstarter video) is to use the props to get people excited about actual science; he wants to incorporate science education into exhibits, including geology, math, medicine and biology, thereby fostering a new generation of super-cool nerds who can always tell you why that would never work in real-life.

Huddleston's got lots of support from big names in the sci-fi industry; he's already raised $100,000 and his current Kickstarter campaign aims at $83,000 more, but that's mostly just to attract larger investors—rich nerds like Elon Musk or Richard Branson, for instance—who would theoretically put up the millions needed to actually make the museum a reality. The museum in Hollywood in 2015 would be a "preview"; he hopes to have a larger, eco-friendly museum/hotel/convention center up by 2018.

· Fanboy Turns to Kickstarter to Fund Hollywood's First Sci-Fi Museum [The Wrap]
· Hollywood Sci Fi Science Fiction Museum [Kickstarter]

Hollywood’s hunger to match movies with proven brands knows no bounds. Lionsgate has announced it will team with Saban Brands to revive the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the first of what it hopes will be many live action feature films. The series was launched by Haim Saban more than 20 years ago, mixing footage with a group of young actors with climactic action footage culled from the Japanese television show Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. The new film will cast a new group of high school kids who mix their studies and social lives with the mission to save the world. Now, the original was as cheesy a concept as you are going to find, but my kids were little when the show first played on the Fox Kids afternoon programming block, and we bought all the merchandise, paid $50 bucks or more a ticket to attend the live action show in Radio City Music Hall. None seemed to mind the mix of Japanese robot footage, and the series was cheap to produce and the performers disposable, which certainly keeps the budget low. If Lionsgate and Saban can recreate that momentum with the next kid audience, there is significant upside. I recall that the Rangers were waning by the time they mustered the first feature film, which cost $15 million and grossed about $64 million worldwide in 1995. Probably smarter to be on the front end of a Rangers resurgence with a feature than the other way around, something Paramount is doing with another retro kids property, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a property which fared way better on the feature front the first time around.

[LA Memorial Coliseum image via Inside the Games]

LA's bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games puts an upgraded Coliseum and Exposition Park at the core of its plan, says Inside the Games, a site devoted to the international event. The official plan, published last Friday, is currently unavailable on the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games' the official site, suggesting that perhaps it was prematurely posted. However, a few images taken from that presentation include a map of the four proposed "clusters" in which Olympic activity will take place. Exposition Park (the Olympic Park) and sites Downtown will form the "Downtown cluster," and utilize venues including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which will host taekwondo, and the Convention Center (gymnastics). The LA River, the "spine" of the SCCOG's plan, will be where canoeing and kayaking go down. (The venue map for Downtown also lists Farmers Field, whose chances at getting built are not looking good.)

The Stubhub Center in Carson (the "Avalon cluster") will have hockey, tennis, and rugby, plus cycling in its Velo Sports Center. A "Westside cluster" will include UCLA's Drake Stadium and the Riviera Golf Club; beach volleyball will hosted by Santa Monica Beach. The "Harbor cluster" around Long Beach will make use of the Long Beach Convention Center for judo and wrestling, and the marina for sailing. A blurb currently on the home page of the SCCOG site does confirm that Exposition Park will be the "centerpiece" of the plan, and that the idea of having four hubs of activity is still the plan.

Additionally, two new "new and purpose-built Athletes' Village" sites are planned, one "close to the heart of the city" and the other near the LA River. (It had previously been prophesied that the LA River would
have a part in the Olympic glory, so not too much of a surprise.)

Public transportation played into the proposal, with the SCCOG saying that they are "committed to delivering up to 80 percent of the spectators by public transit," says swimming site Swim Swam, quoting the official bid documents. Considering that the Expo Line be finished, and the Regional Connector will be online, that might actually be true. (Though it'll take you at least two buses to get you to Carson's Stubhub Complex form Downtown.) Now, if only we could lock down transit from LAX.

· Los Angeles 2024 promise "canvas to paint winning American bid" on as publish plans [Inside the Games]
· Los Angeles Bids For 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games [SS]

These puns are for the birds.

Where do crows go to get drunk?

Flickr: pandiyan

What kind of crows always stick together?

Flickr: pandiyan

What leisurely sport do crows love to play?

Flickr: pandiyan

What do you call a criminal crow?

Flickr: pandiyan

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View Entire List ›

Years ago, someone once said to us, “if you took all of the contributions of homosexuals out of show business, all that would be left would be a few episodes of The Price is Right.”

Yes, we’re everywhere in entertainment: behind the scenes and in front of the camera, in boardrooms and cubicles, writing jokes and carrying c-stands and styling hairdo after hairdo. Entertainment may be the second-gayest industry in the world, after the steel mill industry.

On one recent night in WeHo, the gay mafia assembled at Eleven Nightclub to mix and mingle and compare business cards. We popped by to take a peek at the gays who make entertainment happen. And one of the first people we spoke to was a former Manager of Development on The Price is Right, so never mind about that pithy quote from the beginning.

A major component of the evening was completing a bingo card of relevant types: find someone who works for Disney, find someone who bikes to work, find someone who’s never been to the GLAAD awards, find a vegetarian. There were plenty of all of those things to go around, and also plenty of good-linking, talented young professionals.

So keep an eye out for these faces if you’re an intern in Hollywood. They’re the ones you need to sleep with to make it to the top.

      

As discussed yesterday, Los Angeles is in a rental crisis: rents are staggeringly high and trying to find a place that's actually affordable on a normal income (and that isn't disgusting) is becoming more and more difficult. New high-end developments are being announced every day, but affordable places are fewer and farther between than ever, in part because government money to build them has all but evaporated. Overall, state and federal funding for low- and moderate-income housing "has plummeted 79% over the last five years," according to a study from the California Housing Partnership. (The state's 2011 execution of local redevelopment agencies, which partnered with private developers to build in needy neighborhoods, was a huge blow.) That government cheese was pretty much the only thing encouraging developers to build these less-profitable units. So in an effort to stem the crisis comes SB391, a state bill that aims to generate $300 million to $720 million for reasonable housing every year with a $75 fee to record real estate documents, reports the LA Times. That money would go toward creating more than 10,000 low-income and moderate-income residences every year.

Only documents related to refinancing or foreclosure filing would be subject to the fee; anything related to a sale would still be free and clear. And it wouldn't exactly be a one-time fee, but it'd be close: refinancing would typically require two or three such filings, an expert told the Times, meaning an extra cost of about $225.

Proponents—labor groups, some developers, homeless advocates—say that this bill will be "an important tool to combat the affordability crisis." In case there was any doubt that there is, in fact, a crisis, the language of the bill states that 73 percent of the homeless people in the state are living on the streets because they can't afford a place to live (and that's aside from all the other data on housing unaffordability for even median income residents). But opponents of paying for things that poor people might benefit from are coming at this one from all sides.

As expected, the California Association of Realtors and credit unions oppose the bill, with one rep for the former complaining that it "disproportionally burdens one segment of the society with something that should be borne by the entire population" (unlike unreasonable housing costs and stagnant wages?). A consultant, meanwhile, claims that what's really driving up the cost of housing is whiny neighbors whose ability to block developments creates delays and drive up costs; he says it would be more effective to "limit the ability of neighbors to challenge projects" than to pass this bill. Except that there aren't a lot of NIMBYs in neighborhoods that actually need affordable housing.

The bill, passed by the state Senate in last year's session, is currently in the Assembly.
· Bill seeks to ease California's affordability housing crisis [LAT]
· SB-391 [CLI]
· Los Angeles is in a Rental Crisis [Curbed LA]

Metro's working a plan to turn all that wind created in its subway tunnels—those gusts that totally screw up your hair game—into energy that could power electric car charging stations and lights in the stations, tunnels, and escalators, says The Source. A successful pilot program last year used 10-foot multi-blade airflow collection equipment, or MACE, in the tunnel between the North Hollywood and Universal City Red Line stations, where trains move up to 70 mph. Picking up the wind created by the train pushing air through the tunnels, the MACE generated about 77.7 kilowatt hours per day, more than expected and enough power to juice up 12 homes a year. Since the trains come on a regular schedule, the energy production would be much more consistent than with outside wind turbines or solar power generators. Metro is now studying the best use of the energy and the possibility of installing MACE in other subway and light rail tunnels. As noted on The Source, this is likely the first time a transit system has generated power in subway tunnels and a commenter suggests Metro sell or license MACE to other cities (windfall!).

· Metro Explores New Green Energy [The Source]

Tentative no more: Los Angeles County officially has more than 10 million residents, making the single most populous county in the US, reports KPCC, citing new data from the US Census Bureau (*This isn't new, as previously implied; it has been the most populous since at least 2010). The State Board of Finance speculated late last year that LA County had passed the ten-mill mark in 2013, but the just-released Census data for 2012 and 2013 confirms the numbers. Perspective: 10 million people means that the county has more residents than 43 states and is three times more populous than the second largest county in the state (San Diego). What helped LA swell? People are just coming in from all sides: while native residents were popping out slightly more babies than before, LA County was experiencing the US's largest increase in international migrants (migrants here includes the foreign-born, as well as US soldiers returning from overseas and ex-pats who have decided to re-pat.) Los Angeles itself saw the US's third-largest population increase, gaining more than 65,000 new residents.

· US Census Burean Fact Finder [Official Site]

If there are fantastical, colorful renderings of architects' sci-fi visions for future skyscrapers floating around on the internet, that usually means that it's eVolo Skyscraper contest season. This year has brought Los Angeles "Skyvillage", which would connect four sections around the 110 and the 101 interchange with a structure that looks like a bunch of ant tunnels on the inside and a geodesic playground jungle gym on the outside. The building would fill what it counts as 27 acres between the freeways' looping, overlapping roadways with "green filtering towers" that would connect Downtown, Chinatown, Echo Park, and the Temple/Beaudry no-man's-land into one car-free "architectural organism" that, besides cleaning the air, would act "as a floating city with space for apartments, schools, restaurants, and shops," as our pals at The Verge put it.

· Skyvillage For Los Angeles [eVolo]

[Images via DesignMilk]

Just as Palm Springs's Modernism Week has glamorously wrapped, our pals at Curbed National hear that there may be some new/old Joseph-Eichler-style modernism making its way to that classy corner of the desert for the first time ever. KUD Properties, a PS-based developer, has made an agreement to license original plans by the prominent mid-century developer to build a brand new Eichler house. Depending on how it's received, it's possible that KUD could build up to a neighborhood's-worth of the houses. (No word on which one of the designs will be used for the trial run.)

Eichler, who built housing tracts in Granada Hills, Orange, and elsewhere, has a devoted cult following; CN has previously pointed out that "out of more than 11,000 houses with name-dropping rights, it's commonplace that only 10 to 20 [Eichlers] are on the market at a time." Will the vintage deadstock version be in as high demand?
· Brand New Eichler Homes Could Be Coming to Palm Springs [Curbed National]
· Joseph Eichler [Curbed LA]
· You Can Build a Brand New Richard Neutra Case Study House [Curbed LA]

Broderbund Software's legacy is sure to live on through ports, sequels and source code, but what about the game developer's behind-the-scenes history? Thankfully, it won't be fading away any time soon. Company founder Doug Carlston has donated...

Every Monday through Friday a new Dish of the Day is featured. If you haven't yet voted in last week's Deep Dish Pool Party, choose your three favorite hunks in the sidebar poll.

Every Monday through Friday a new Dish of the Day is featured. If you haven't yet voted in last week's Deep Dish Pool Party, choose your three favorite hunks in the sidebar poll.

Today's Dish is Steve Siler.

The post Cooking for one of the first times in college and I remembered this… appeared first on The Meta Picture.

(717): So I was putting on a condom and looked to my right to not make eye contact, she said did you just look at the American flag while putting that on. I said this one's for Team USA.

(408): I asked him for something to clean up with after sex and he handed me a sham wow. A SHAM WOW.

Between Glee, One Direction and Lady Gaga, there’s no shortage of pop culture turing America’s upstanding, potential vag-loving boys gay. Way back in the day — like, the ’90s duh — kids had to decode a bit more if they wanted to become degenerates. Thank god so many of us did.

Here are 26 things that turned ’90s kids gay, one fore each year someone born in 1987 has been alive.

1. Zack Morris

Who among us didn’t have a crush on this Saved By the Bell leading man child? Even better that Mark-Paul Gosselaar certainly doesn’t mind.

2. Nickelodeon Gak 

Getting this sticky, sploogy gak all over you would become a lifelong pursuit.

3. X-Men

A bunch of societal misfits who band together and form strong community bonds. Then fight bad guys in their underwear. Enough said.

4. Water Snakes

Where to begin? If you could manage to keep one of these in your hands for more than 8 seconds, you’d be prepared for the slipperiest of situations life could throw you.

5. The SoloFlex Infomercial

This revolutionary fitness product that promised a “fast, smooth pump” (seriously) should have come with a disclaimer: may cause wet dreams in questioning youth.

6. Skip-it

The greatest thing of all was there was a counter on that god damned ball.

7. The Blue Ranger

Now-out actor David Yost (forever dreamy blue Billy) says he was harassed on set for being gay. Must have made for some uncomfortable moments in the Megazord.

8. Pretty Pretty Princess

Anyone with a sister who didn’t sneak into this game to put on ALL the jewelry at once is a downright liar.

9. Push Pops

Not so subtle, marketing masterminds.

10. Leonardo DiCaprio in Growing Pains

The same show that launched Leo’s career also left us to deal with homophobic has-been Kirk Cameron. We’ll take that deal any day.

11. Little Nemo

A sweet, nightmare-prone boy goes on a quest in his pj’s to assuage his daddy issues. Oh, and there are like a million puffy rainbow clowns along the way. If you have some time to kill and want a heavy dose of nostalgia, the entire film is available on youtube.

12. Tomogatchi

If you currently have a dog that could fit in a handbag, chances are you had at least a few of these dangling from your JanSport.

13. Ouija Boards

You may have asked if Brittany (or Stacy, Ashley, Morgan or Alexis) had a crush on you when your friends were over, but when they left you made the same inquiry about Tyler (or Justin, Kyle, Cody or Cameron). Also, one word: Coven.

14. Calvin Klein 

Kids in the ’90s couldn’t be caught dead rocking tighty-whities in the locker room. That sure didn’t stop them from dreaming.

15. Bananas in Pajamas  

They came down stairs, in pairs, chasing teddy bears, ’cause on Tuesdays they tried to catch them unawares. Soo what you’re saying is…there’s a Tuesday night bear party at The Eagle I should be going to?

16. Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Bright

One rode a unicorn and the other an organic tricycle, but their impacts couldn’t have been more similar.

17. WWF

All the theatrics of a Liberace concert and the skin of an A&F quarterly, while still a socially acceptable obsession for a 10 year old boy.

18. Glitter Magic Wands

Casting spells on bullies worldwide.

19. The Angry Beavers

Subliminal cartoon programming to infiltrate young impressionable minds.

20. Tinky-Winky

Cute bag, girl.

21. Sky Dancers

Countless hours of entertainment and a valuable lesson in twirling.

22. Trolls

There’s a pink one, and a green one, and a blue one and a yellow one. And they’re all pretty gay.

23. The Gromble from Ahh! Real Monsters

Femme voice? Check. Phallic nose? Check. Two pairs of matching red high heels? Check. Favorite character on the show? Absolutely.

24. Barbie Power Wheels

You were the envy of the cul de sac once you got behind the wheel of this bodacious ride.

25. Disney Princesses

You can sing every word to Part of Your World and A Whole New World, and wished for a world where your dress-up box had Jasmine’s cute two-piece.

 

AND FINALLY….

 

26. THE INTERNET

Kids in the ’90s had the unique, insane experience of witnessing the birth of the information age as they were coming of age. We’re talking creepy AOL chatrooms, secret online boyfriends, and all the internet porn your 56k modem could handle. Talk about a game changer.

There’s not much that can be said about BuzzFeed’s ode to Gay Valentine’s Day, because it pretty much hits the “life” nail right on the head. It’s perfect.

“The Eight Types Of Gay Guys I’ve Dated” stereotypes every man you’ve ever dated into one of eight surprisingly relatable roles, saving the best one—The One—for last. It’ll put a smile on your face if you’re flying solo this V-Day and, at the very least, give you hope for Valentine’s Days to come:

The Culver Ice Arena has been on quite the rollercoaster these last few months, before which most people probably took for granted that the 52-year-old community institution would always be around. Now, not only is it closed, but it could also release a toxic gas cloud that would affect a lot of Culver City and some of West LA. Uh oh. Rewind a few months, to when everyone found out that the ice rink's landlords had jacked the rent up 100 percent and that it would have to close; there was an outpouring of sentiment for the rink, and impassioned campaigning against Planet Granite, the new tenant who intended to turn the building into a rock climbing facility. Then there was the gamechanging discovery that the zoning for the land dictated it be used exclusively for ice skating rinks. And the tables have turned once again, with the discovery that the ice rink's current ammonia-based refrigeration system needs to be removed because it poses a danger to public health.

The rink had inspections every year and passed, reports the Culver City Observer, but they were not at the depth that would reveal cooling problems. As detailed in a special report by the city manager and the fire chief, the rink's operator arranged for utilities to be shut off February 15 (that's tomorrow), but according to a Planet Granite report, "A shutdown of the refrigeration system without appropriate removal of the coolant can lead to leakage or in a worst case scenario, rupture from excessive pressure build up and release of ammonia vapor." And: "…the ammonia coolant used in the system is a significant and potentially dangerous environmental and health risk, especially for those living closest to the facility." The city has been furiously trying to get the owner or ice rink operator, and Planet Granite to do something about safely decommissioning the rink, but everyone refused to deal with it.

(Planet Granite has since disentangled itself from the lease and will no longer be opening on the site. There's no official word on why they backed out, but with all the drama surrounding the changeover, is it any surprise?)

It's unclear how much anhydrous ammonia coolant there is at the rink, but, according to the report, "A catastrophic release of 100 gallons of liquefied anhydrous ammonia would create an 11,250 cubic foot vapor cloud. The anhydrous ammonia vapor cloud would then start to mix with the surrounding air and travel downwind." That cloud could cause "severe injuries and death." And "a 100 gallon release of anhydrous ammonia at night with a southwesterly wind is predicted to impact an estimated 5,000 residents, including persons at Culver City High School, Culver City Middle School, Farragut Elementary School, West LA College, and two shopping centers."

Now the fate of the rink is up in the air. The coolant system needs to be taken out, but there's no real time frame or plan presented for getting that done, although the report insists the city is doing whatever it can. No rush, folks!
· Arena Can't Reopen Until Damage Is Repaired [CCO]
· More Twists for Culver Ice Arena: Planet Granite Pulls Out of Lease, After Old Ice Declared Unsafe [DnA]
· Ice Skating is Only Thing Allowed on Culver City Ice Rink Land [Curbed LA]

It doesn’t take a genius to understand why the entire world drops everything to tune into the Olympic Games every two years. Aside from being Earth’s oldest international sporting event, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games are routinely celebrated as a gathering of the world’s finest athletes, a display of their hardened bodies, and an introduction to the athletic crushes we’ll be gushing over for the next four years.

Summer Olympians are more prone to flashing skin, what with their barely-there swim trunks and all (obligatory Tom Daley link), but that doesn’t mean their Winter Olympic counterparts aren’t just as steamy when they strip out of that restrictive winter gear.

A naked athlete is a great athlete, so without further ado, we bring you the 12 hottest winter Olympians competing in the 2014 Sochi Games, sans their shirts. Go sports!

John Daly, 28, skeleton racer. Team USA.

——

Steven Nyman, 31, Alpine ski racer. Team USA.

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Dario Cologna, 27, cross-country skier. Team Switzerland.

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Steve Langton, 30, bobsledder. Team USA.

——

Charlie White, 26, figure skater. Team USA.

——

Jesse Beckom III, 35, bobsled. Team USA.

——

Bode Miller, 36, Alpine ski racer. Team USA.

——

Zach Parise, 29, ice hockey. Team USA

——

Sidney Crosby, 26, ice hockey. Team Canada.

——

Jonathan Toews, 25, ice hockey. Team Canada.

——

Christof Innerhofer , 29, Alpine ski racer. Team Italy.

——

Matteo Guarise, 29, figure skater. Team Italy.

The Doll Factory, the Historic Filipinotown warehouse that's home to the LA Derby Dolls roller derby team, is set to be torn down. As they note, the neighborhood is starting to draw the interest of developers: "The Derby Dolls have always been urban pioneers setting out for uncharted LA neighborhoods - putting down stakes, strapping on skates, and helping to revitalize entire zip codes. We know our job is done when the landlord wants to demolish our arena and put up condos." (Info from 2007 on the city's zoning website says there are plans for a mixed-use development with 205 market-rate units, 46 affordable units, and groundfloor retail.) The team has been playing at the Doll Factory rink for six and a half years—they first formed in 2003—and is now trying to raise $100,000 for a new facility at an undisclosed location (they have seven weeks to raise an additional $85,000). Maybe they can take over the long-rotting Bates Motel?

· The LA Derby Dolls Must Move! [Indiegogo]

[Image via Save Culver City Ice Rink]

The Culver Ice Arena, one of the last ice rinks in the area and former training grounds for many NHL greats, including Wayne Gretzky, closed down for good yesterday, pushed out by a 100 percent rent hike by the Fresno-based landowners. (According to Hidden Los Angeles, "the rink will remain intact and iced for the time being.") There was enormous public outcry against the closing of the rink, and especially about the subsequent leasing of the land to a company named Planet Granite that wants to turn the rink into a combination yoga/fitness/indoor rock-climbing facility, but there was little that could be done by the city or the citizens about what was essentially a private property issue. Until now!

In an incredible plot twist, it's been discovered that the property in question is zoned exclusively for ice skating and no other business, and would require Planet Granite to get a zoning change to use the property for anything else, reports the Culver City Observer. The rezoning process would likely take months and would have to receive final approval from the city council, which is stocked with ice rink supporters.
· SMOKING GUN-Rock Climbers Need Zoning Change [CCO]

Tonight the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council is spending some of its meeting time voting on a motion that would change its rules to declare definitively that Silver Lake is NOT on the Eastside, even if scads of real live Angelenos insist on "incorrectly" saying it is. (East of ... what? Curbed's commenters have millions of different suggestions.) We sent comedian and Echo Park resident Jeff Wattenhofer to Micheltorena Elementary School to liveblog this important and historic breaking news event.

7:55 pm: I look forward to everyone's polite and pleasant comments about me tomorrow morning!!!! Full disclosure, I have and do call my neighborhood (Echo Park) the "Eastside." But in my defense, EP is more EAST than Silver Lake and I live on the EAST side of the street and I moved there on EASTer.

"Eastside" is just easier. If a coworker asks the innocent question of where I live, I can't assume they have a working knowledge of LA's 397 individual neighborhoods and their geographic location within. Plus, I work in Bel Air and anything east of Fairfax might as well be Rhode Island to those people.

8:02 pm: It is literally impossible to pay attention to one of these things. There are so many things (random chit-chat, creaking floors, displayed kindergarten artwork) in this auditorium drawing focus from the people speaking. If you came in with a robust speaking voice and candy apple suckers for everyone, you could get them to bulldoze a retirement home.

8:10 pm: You really haven't seen a neighborhood council meeting until you've seen it LIVE! The energy in here is electric!

8:12 pm: Surprising lack of ironic clothing in this audience. The neo-nineties-dressed Silver Lake hipster crowd stayed home tonight.

8:21 pm: Ok, here we go! Sparks have started to fly. The election committee has been caught with their dick in their hands.

Nina Sorkin wants to spend $2,000 on reusable bags as giveaways and Charles Herman-Wurmfeld is NOT comfortable with that.

8:23 pm: Clint Luken to the rescue! He has a box of leftover bags in his office!!!

Points to Anne-Marie Johnson for absolutely SHUTTING DOWN an interruption by Nina Sorkin. Anne-Marie is running a tight ship tonight!

8:25 pm: These bags are being brought up repeatedly! Debate has been extended 10 minutes to bash these bags. Can Nina Sorkin survive the "deplorable expense" associated with "Bag-Gate"?

8:26 pm: Nadine Trujillo is throwing in her support for the bags!

8:27 pm: Nina Sorkin has found her G. Gordon Liddy in Nadine Trujillo.

8:28 pm: Sorkin is PISSED.

8:29 pm: Spending money on bags instead of additional polling places is "voter suppression," so says Renee Nahum.

8:31 pm: Anthony Crump abstains from bag vote! His hands remain clean in any possible Bag-Gate shakedown.

8:33 pm: First use of word "ludicrous" by Paul Michael Neuman. Spending money on muffins and expensive sandwiches also "voter suppression."

Charles Herman-Wurmfeld gets applause break!

8:35 pm: Also, Charles wins best hat award.

8:43 pm: Bad blood about the bags almost sank this election committee budget entirely, but thankfully for Sorkin, it passes. Charles shakes his head in disgust with every "no" vote. And now the long road to restoring Silver Lake's trust in politics.

8:50 pm: The position of head of grievance committee has been opened to anyone in the audience. This could be my chance to be the next Charles Herman-Wurmfeld.

8:56 pm: Council is REALLY grilling the two guys that volunteered to be the grievance committee. Sounds like voter suppression to me.

9:01 pm: Chris Ashe is irreverent and I like him. I think I can go on record and say that Curbed LA FULLY endorses him for the position of grievance committee member. [Ed.: Curbed does not endorse any candidate for any grievance committee.]

9:02 pm: Chris Ashe wins in a landslide! He's on the committee! Hope! Change! A NEW America!!

9:13 pm: Nadine Trujillo is a real hardass about liquor licenses. She is not going to approve a business that's gonna take away your parking for valet spaces. That's NOT what she was elected for!

9:14 pm: I think a valet killed Nadine Trujillo's kid the way she speaks of them.

9:16 pm: Clint Lukens is firmly on board with the liquor licenses tonight. This guy likes to party.

9:18 pm: Dorit Dowler-Guerrero is all about liquor licenses if the place offers cheap drinks.

9:18 pm: Ok, here it is!!!!!!! The Eastside debate!

9:20 pm: Janet asks "Where's the line?"

9:21 pm: Paul Neuman has read the articles, guys. He knows about the online debate!

9:22 pm: Anne-Marie Johnson raising. her. voice.

9:23 pm: Curbed LA gets a mention! Also "commenters who refuse to leave their names." You know who you are, guys!

9:24 pm: Anne-Marie Johnson is beside herself. #livid

9:24 pm: Oh shit, Chris Ashe is gonna speak!!!!

9:26 pm: First speaker Theresa is on the "central" side of the debate. I think she's in Anne-Marie Johnson's pocket!

9:27 pm: Chris Ashe thinks it's silly. We all know East LA is on the other side of the river.

I love him!

9:29 pm: Last speaker says we call ourselves Eastsiders because it's human nature to want to feel a part of something "edgy."

9:31 pm: Debate is over!

9:35 pm: Ok, so here's the deal. I could have SWORN that the council was voting on whether to end debate of the issue, and that's a boring vote, so I spaced out (I've been in an elementary school auditorium for TWO HOURS.). Long story short, I have no idea how the board voted. I, like you, will have to wait to read about it in USA Today tomorrow morning.

But really, does it matter? Does it matter what a board of 15 or so people will be procedurally obligated to consider the boundary of Silver Lake? Does it change anything?

Just call it what you want and rest easy knowing that Chris Ashe is diligently investigating grievances, no doubt on his path to the White House and beyond. When he gets there, he'll make the final decision.

9:46 pm: Ok, turns out it passed.
· Silver Lake Will Vote Tonight on Whether or Not it's the Eastside [Curbed LA]