For nearly 30 years, there was only one full-time gynecologist on staff at the University of Southern California's student health clinic: Dr. George Tyndall, about whom there was a widespread understanding among staff and students that he sexualized his examinations, making overt sexual remarks to the teenagers under his care, fondling them, and waxing creepy about his predilection for Asian women. Read the rest

Tonight at 7PM, I'll be appearing on a panel at the Last Bookstore in downtown LA, with the title "Truth to Power: Genre Fiction in Post-Fact America," alongside of Gretchen McNeil, Jennifer Brody, Christina Cigala, Bobby Goldstein, CB Lee, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Kate Maruyama and Samuel Sattin. Read the rest

MAD Magazine has made the move from New York City to Los Angeles, relaunching itself with a new logo and staff (for instance, the magazine has its first female art director, Suzanne Hutchinson, aka Suzy Splab).

Issue #1 has already hit the newsstands.

Here's what's in store:

Introducing MAD's first issue EVER*, featuring full-length spoofs of Star Wars and Riverdale! Plus, "A MAD Look at Harassment" from Sergio Aragonés, "Pop Culture That Didn't Make It Into Ready Player One," an all-new Potrzebie Comics section, The MADifesto, Spy vs. Spy, the Fold-In, and much more! (*Technically, this is our first magazine-format #1 issue ever!)Introducing MAD's first issue EVER*, featuring full-length spoofs of Star Wars and Riverdale! Plus, "A MAD Look at Harassment" from Sergio Aragonés, "Pop Culture That Didn't Make It Into Ready Player One," an all-new Potrzebie Comics section, The MADifesto, Spy vs. Spy, the Fold-In, and much more! (*Technically, this is our first magazine-format #1 issue ever!)

I noticed you that if you get a 2 or 3 year subscription, they'll send you a little tiki mug that looks like Alfred E. Neuman. Want!

WELCOME TO THE ALL-NEW, SOMEWHAT-FAMILIAR MAD!

Issue #1's cover art by Jason Edmiston

(Pee-wee Herman) Read the rest

Baxter Street in Echo Park, East Los Angeles, is the fifth-steepest hill in America; it's so steep that inexperienced drivers struggle with it, spinning out and crashing, especially in the rain. Read the rest

Update: due to popular demand, we've moved to a bigger space! We'll be at UCLA Moore Hall, Room 3340 (Reading Room), 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095. There's 20 new spaces open: RSVP today!

A law intended to stop people from making off-brand DVD players now means that security researchers can’t warn you about dangers from the cameras in your bedroom; that mechanics can’t fix your car; and that your printer won’t take third party ink. Read the rest

When my pink-haired pal Brittany High told me that she won a ride with Angelyne in her signature pink Corvette and that she wanted me to come along, I thought, "Oh, this will be interesting."

When identical twins Marian and Vivian Brown twins were still alive, it was considered a good omen to run into them up here in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I was pregnant, I spotted them in Union Square and felt my unborn child had been charmed in some way by their mere presence.

An Angelyne sighting in Los Angeles has the same effect on people.

I had briefly met the famous-for-being-famous L.A. icon once before. Near the end of 2013, I was driving to a lunch place in Burbank with my pal Allee Willis who startled me, "Pull over! Pull over! It's Angelyne!" And sure enough, there was her pink Corvette parked in front of a paint store. Allee told me to have cash ready but I didn't have any on me. I told her so. Allee, an icon herself, has known Angelyne since 1986 and knew the drill. Pushing money into my hand, she said, "You WILL buy something from her." I promised not to embarrass her and we headed to the Corvette.

Our visit was short but yielded this epic photo of the three of us. I used the money Allee palmed me to quietly buy a t-shirt. Like the time I saw the Brown twins, I felt lucky stumbling upon Angelyne that day in Burbank. Read the rest

"It's definitely art. I would say... I think." -- Joel McHale

No, it's not a museum of hammers. That's in Alaska.

What UCLA's Hammer Museum does have is an exhibit called “Stories of Almost Everyone” that is "about the willingness to believe the stories that are conveyed by works of contemporary art."

Will Ferrell and Joel McHale try to unravel the art's meaning in a private tour with its curator, Aram Moshayedi.

The exhibit is open until May 6, 2018.

Read the rest

On Saturday April 7, celebrate the wonder of space exploration during the Yuri's Night bash taking place under the Space Shuttle Endeavor at the California Science Center! Special guests include astronaut Nicole Stott, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and many more. Among dozens of far out talks and stellar interactive experiences, I'll be there playing the Voyager Golden Record, the iconic message for extraterrestrials launched into space 40 years ago. (My friends Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad and I co-produced the first ever vinyl release of the Voyager Record and we were honored with a 2018 Grammy award.)

I hope to see you there! Tickets: Yuri's Night L.A.

And of course if you're not in Los Angeles, there are Yuri's Night happenings all over the planet!

Read the rest

I've experienced other incredible interactive-type adventures (for instance, 49 Boxes, Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return, and the Jejune Institute along with its offshoot, the ongoing Elsewhere Philatelic Society), but I had never gone through an escape room proper before. I was definitely not disappointed.

Late Saturday afternoon, I arrived in Los Angeles to host a meetup I had planned for the readers of my inbox zine. A new Koreatown escape room called Stash House topped our agenda.

Per the instructions emailed to us at the time of booking, our party of seven arrived promptly at 6 PM to a storefront painted matte black. A green glass light clued us in that we were at the right door. I buzzed the video doorbell, the door cracked open, and the fun began.

For a little over an hour, we chaotically cracked codes and solved puzzles in small groups which then led us to more clues and surprises. Our host watched us through surveillance cams in the back room and, when we appeared to be getting stuck, offered us gentle clues through texts on a provided cell phone. For the finale, we all gathered to crack the last code together. Everyone seriously had a blast. Stash House has my highest recommendation.

The object of the Stash House escape room is to find the six little baggies of coke a drug dealer named Ray has hidden in his apartment and flush them down the toilet (shown above in the "Shitter" cam) before the cops arrive. Read the rest

Adios, Aladdin...

My friend Otto von Stroheim (who, with his wife Baby Doe, host Tiki Oasis, the world's largest tiki festival) shared some cool Disneyland news on Sunday:

Polynesian Pop is alive and healthy and growing and this is another sign of the future of Tiki Style: Disneyland has invested in Tiki and is installing another new Tiki section (after the HUGE success of Trader Sam's bars in Anaheim and Orlando)

The official announcement came Thursday on the Disney Parks Blog:

Calling all adventurers! There will soon be a new area of Adventureland to explore at Disneyland park.

The former Aladdin’s Oasis will soon be transformed to The Tropical Hideaway! This new experience will soon appear along the tropical shores nestled between the Jungle Cruise and “Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.” This one-of-a-kind destination will be a popular rest stop for Adventureland locals and weary explorers alike. Guests will be able to rub elbows with their favorite skippers in an exotic traders’ market, featuring all of the sights, sounds and flavors of the tropics

TimeOut Los Angeles reported on the surprise announcement (calling it "a simple but effective Adventureland bomb") and dug a little deeper into the the history of Polynesian Pop at that location in the Anaheim park:

Sporting a name that's likely a nod to the adjacent Tiki Room’s theme song—“Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people, you”—the Tropical Hideaway will sit on the former grounds of Disney’s long-running restaurant, Tahitian Terrace, a Polynesian-inspired eatery that stood from 1962 to 1993 before transforming into a theater for a former Aladdin live show.

LA's homeless population is up 75% over the past six years; remove LA from the national statistics and the rate of American homelessness is actually in decline. Read the rest

The City of Los Angeles posted on Facebook -- with this awesome ad -- that they are hiring for a Graphic Designer, sorry, "Graphics Designer." Applicants clearly must know MS Paint inside and out.

Thanks, Heathervescent! Read the rest

The Bombay Frankie Company makes Indian "burritos" in a gas station in Los Angeles. People are going out of their way to get them.

The best things come from the most unexpected places. At least, that’s the case with the Bombay Frankie Company. They’re serving up some of the best Indian food in Los Angeles—all out of a gas station. Brother and sister Hiram and Priyanka grew up in California eating classic Indian cuisine. Now, they’ve launched the newest Indian food concept in California with their take on Mumbai’s street food classic, the frankie. Get ready to fill up your belly and your tank.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of discovering the tomb of King Tut, many of the Boy King's artifacts and other ancient Egyptian items will be touring the United States in the new year.

Lonely Planet writes:

The largest ever international exhibition of ancient Egyptian artefacts from the tomb of its most famous pharaoh will open early next year in Los Angeles. King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh will visit ten different cities as it tours the world starting off on the West Coast of America on 24 March.

More than 150 items from Tutankhamun’s tomb will be on display at the California Science Center. The exhibition will be an absolute treat for Egyptologists – both amateur and professional – as never before have so many ancient items associated with King Tut been on display together outside Egypt. Many of the items would have been used by the Boy King himself including golden jewellery, elaborate carvings, sculptures, and ritual antiquities.

Forty per cent of the objects will be leaving home for both the first and last time before returning for permanent display in the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is currently under construction.

You can first see the exhibit in Los Angeles before it heads to Europe and then to its new permanent home at The Grand Egyptian Museum (which is located near the Pyramids of Giza). Be sure to pre-register for the L.A. exhibit now.

Of course you can't talk about a King Tut without being reminded of Steve Martin's bit on Saturday Night Live in 1978. Read the rest

Chad Kroeger, a Youtuber whose persona is a kind of stoner party-bro, attended a City Council hearing to discuss a plan to prohibit house parties and gave a passionate speech in defense of these parties as a way of helping lost young men realize their full potential; once gaveled out of the speaker's box, his confederate took the stand and continued. This is genius, Andy Kaufman-grade performance art. We howled with laughter in my house. (Thanks, Alistair!) Read the rest

TIL: Los Angeles pizzeria chain Big Mama's and Papa's sells a pizza that feeds 50 to 70 people. Their creation is called the "Giant Sicilian" and it boasts the title of world's "largest pizza commercially available" with Guinness World Records.

Is this enough pizza? #HappyLaborDay #BMPP Most of our locations will be operating with normal business hours 🇺🇸️ #labordayweekend #happy #food #eat #pizza #instapizza #instafood #instagood #🇺🇸

A post shared by Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria®️ (@bigmamasnpapas) on Sep 2, 2017 at 12:27pm PDT

It's a square 54 inches by 54 inches (for comparison, the average ten-year-old girl is 54 inches tall) and is priced starting at $249.99.

YouTube commenter NOT BASIC points out that it's not a great deal, at least from a financial standpoint:

This is a bad deal if you think about it (pies)*(slices) = 200 slices then compare price

Domino's large 7.99 carryout deal (25)*(8) = 200 slices = 199.75+ Tax < 249.99 *also each pizza is 3 toppings!

Pizza Hut large 7.99 carryout deal (25)*(8) = 200 slices = 199.75+ Tax < 249.99 *also each pizza is 2 toppings!

Papa Johns 9.99 Any Pan Pizza (20)*(10) = 200 slices = 199.80+ Tax < 249.99 *also each pizza is 5 toppings!

Little Caesars 5.00 hot n ready deal (25)*(8) = 200 slices 125 + Tax < 249.99 *Pepperoni or cheese.

I could technically get 400 slices or 50 pepperoni pizzas from Little Caesars for the price of this meaning its double the value!

But, from a giant novelty pizza standpoint, it might just be the best deal around. Read the rest

If you live in LA, I hope to see you at Skylight Books in Silver Lake, where I'll be talking with British cartoonist Tom Gauld about his work, including his latest book, Baking With Kafka. I'm a huge fan of Tom's work (see my reviews of his previous books, Mooncop, You're All Just Jealous of my Jetpack, Goliath, and The Gigantic Robot).

Tom also created this lovely Boing Boing T-shirt, which should be in the wardrobe off all discriminating primates.

I've never met Tom in person, so I'm excited about this evening!

Event date: Monday, November 6, 2017 - 7:30pm

Event address: 1818 N Vermont Ave Los Angeles, CA 90027

You can reserve a copy of Baking with Kafka at Skylight Books here, so Tom can sign it for you.

Laugh out loud funny, Baking with Kafka compiles brilliant British cartoonist Tom Gauld's weekly strips in The Guardian, each strip captures the profundity of a thinkpiece while elevating its commentary to triumphant new levels of comedic narration. Join this stellar cartoonist for a wonderful evening of conversation with Mark Frauenfelder discussing these celebrated strips.

In his inimitable style, British cartoonist Tom Gauld has opened comics to a crossover audience and challenged perceptions of what the medium can be. Noted as a "book-lover's cartoonist," Gauld's weekly strips in The Guardian, Britain's most well-regarded newspaper, stitch together the worlds of literary criticism and pop culture to create brilliantly executed, concise comics. Simultaneously silly and serious, Gauld adds an undeniable lightness to traditionally highbrow themes.