A profitable sale {darknite12 on eBay}

These are very attractive socks, but we must ask a few questions about this mysterious auction that recently ended on eBay:

1. Why is an auction for used socks by a seller with over 500 feedback private?
2. Why, out of 88 auction views, were there 6 bids? This is a very good conversion rate for any auction let alone a pair of used socks.
3. For a total price of $9.50 (includes shipping) isn’t it much cheaper to buy multiple pairs of average quality or one pair of excellent quality socks?

The seller sure made off with a good deal. And good for him. He’s probably an aspiring actor who needs the money. The buyer either is a first-time eBayer or has a fetish for black socks worn by men with hairy legs. Let’s not dwell on this matter any further.

Santa Monica Pier Buoy Data {NDBC}

The water level rose about 2.25 feet above normal at the Santa Monica Pier around 12:20pm PST. The green line represents the observed water level. The cause: a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Chile 13 hours prior. Although parts of Hawaii were evacuated, no damage was reported in the state. The only (minor) damage thus far in the U.S. has been in the Ventura/Santa Barbara, California area. In that area, it was the 10th set of waves that were the largest. Interestingly, the surge in these parts of California was nearly as high as that in Hawaii. From the NWS:

LOCATION                   LAT    LON     TIME        AMPL
 ------------------------  -----  ------  -------     -----------
 SANTA MONICA  CA          34.0N  118.5W  2024UTC     0.64M/2.1FT
 SANTA MONICA  CA          34.0N  118.5W  2022UTC     0.71M/2.3FT
 SANTA BARBARA  CA         34.4N  119.7W  2252UTC     0.72M/2.3FT

Black = unresponsive listeners, non-listeners, or both?

After listening to Los Angeles radio for a couple of hours, it becomes apparent that most callers are not from the western portion of the coverage area. Seemingly endless numbers of callers reside in the O.C. and no one hails from a speech bubble-shaped region located from Malibu to Beverly Hills to the beach communities. Reasons?

1. Wealthier individuals listen to their personal collection of music over radio. This would make sense based on the cost of purchasing equipment and copies of music.
2. More affluent listeners don’t feel the need to call the station to request music or win a prize. Why waste time calling a station or waiting on hold when you can just buy the song you want or purchase concert tickets in less time and with less risk?
3. Geographically speaking, these areas only represent a fraction of the grade A service area. This still does not explain the fact that many areas are never tied to radio callers.

Valid 2/24/10-3/2/10!

If you live in Los Angeles, you can find Tina’s Burritos (based in nearby Industry, CA) at dirt cheap prices this week. At least four stores in the LA/Inglewood/Long Beach area are selling the frozen food for $0.20 each. Compare to Ralph’s which is currently offering only 3 burritos for $1. The trade-off is that the reduced-price stores are small operations that may or may not be as clean or fresh as a national chain. When you think about it, what’s the big deal about saving $0.13 for a frozen burrito? You have to buy eight of them (a disgusting amount of meat/bean puree) to save a dollar. Gross.

What a great lineup of characters. 30 years later, the same types of characters are still around – even older women with oversized headphones. You just have to look around a bit harder.

Another type of Thanksgiving mix {deviantart}

Who mixes the latest Lady Gaga remix with David Guetta? Earlier this evening (at 5pm Pacific to be exact), Richard Vission premiered his remix of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance on his “Pre-Thanksgiving” mix on Power 106 Los Angeles. Funny how the Needless to say, the mix was seamless and Mr. Vission will be posting it online early next week. He clearly promoted his brand name, but it worked. Dozens of Twitter users unanimously agree.

A few of the songs mixed:

• Lady Gaga – Bad Romance (Richard Vission Remix)
• David Guetta – Love Is Gone
• Richard Vission & Luciana – I Like That
• Black Eyed Peas – Meet Me Halfway (Richard Vission Remix)
• David Guetta – Sexy Chick
• Junior Jack – Stupidisco

Google the “Bad Romance” remix and have a listen. It’s far better than the original. Funny how a ‘world premiere’ is already online in high quality though…

Back in the day, when it was AM 1580 {kintespace.com}

Perhaps the greatest radio format change ever happened in August 2009 when L.A.’s 93.5 KDAY went back to its rap roots and re-branded itself as “Southern California’s Back in the Day Hit Station”. Starting in the 80s’ and ending in 1991, KDAY played songs that turned out to be the foundation of today’s hip-hop scene. Artists such as Dr. Dre and N.W.A. owe part of their success to the local station. Sure, there were other black stations, but KDAY was the real deal. A 2005 blog post from Gentle Jones explains the meaning of the station, and adds:

Aside from just breaking new music, KDAY was innovative in keeping their name and their faces out in the communities of Los Angeles, the kids who were the station’s core. But these weren’t friendly meet-and-greets at malls and industry gatherings. These were concerts and events in the deepest gang ‘hoods in LA, at the height of the city’s blood/crip warfare. The station’s head of public relations, Rory Kaufman, oversaw and attended these events, no matter where they were. Hen-Gee recalls these gigs, at places like Washington High School: “We performed at live remotes, recreation parks, schools and ‘hoods that no other rapper or DJ dared to enter. They were the killing fields.”

Eventually, AM music radio was left for the clarity of FM and Power 106 gained traction in the marketplace. KDAY 1580 soon shut down. However the nostalgia of the old songs has never faded from the hearts and memories of the now 30+ age demographic. In addition, today’s youth and young adults of all backgrounds enjoy old school West Coast rap. The top songs played according to yes.com may not be entirely old school, but they are generally at least 7 years old:

1 Too Short – Gettin’ It (w/ Parliament Funkadelic)

2 Luniz – I Got 5 On It (w/ Michael Marshall)

3 Outkast – Atliens

4 DMX – Ruff Ryders Anthem

5 Big Pun – Still Not A Player (w/ Joe)

6 Junior M.A.F.I.A. – Get Money

7 Eazy-E – Eazy-Duz-It

8 The Fugees – Fu-Gee-La

9 The Notorious B.I.G. – Notorious Thugs (w/ Bone Thugs-N-Harmony​)

10 The Dove Shack – Summertime In The LBC

Ultimately, who doesn’t want to cruise around L.A. and hear references to the glory days of Compton’s and Long Beach’s rap scene?

You'll still find 3 Spider-Mans in Hollywood

Pretty exciting news out of Hollywood tonight: One Spider-Man impersonator is temporarily off the streets as he answers to outstanding warrants. The news from KTLA:

And officers arriving on the scene found several different people dressed as Spider-Man.

The stopped one of the impersonators, but it wasn’t the suspect. The second “Spider-Man” they stopped was the suspect.

Hilarious.