Spike Jonze presented “You & Me on La Cienega” at a BBQ at Opening Ceremony in West Hollywood. The director and producer of such wonderful movies as Being John Malkovich and Where The Wild Things Are, arrived to showcase his new installation, which featured three “air dancers” rising over a large crowd of OC regulars, musicians and artists in the store’s adjoining parking lot space in West Hollywood.

Deschutes Brewery’s Third Annual Chocolate Beer Dinner was an event I won’t soon be forgetting. The five course meal, created by Chefs Katrina Spatrisano, Matt Neltner and Jeff Latino, was thoughtfully prepared and presented to the diner like an edible masterpiece. Equal thanks must go to Brewers Paul Arney and Jimmy Seifrit, as the beer pairing with each course was innovative, balanced, and unlike anything I had ever tasted.

Employees of the Deschutes Brewery are teaming up with Bend's elite Ultra Marathoner, Kami Semick, to raise money for the Starfish Greathearts  Foundation.  Starfish is a non-profit charity whose mission is to care for children left orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in South Africa.  Next month Kami will travel to South Africa to race in the Comrades Marathon on May 30th, a 56 mile running race that travels through the KwaZula Natal region.  In this a

Patti Smith’s quote: “New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city.”

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Photo credit: Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

What we have here is a slideshow extolling the virtues of "just getting to the finish line." Everyone competes, nobody wins, it's all about finishing.. In the first race there will be more than 4,500 participants of which one fifth are women.

Once again we are gearing up for the Oyster Racing Series which kicks off early this year with an off-road version in Glenwood Springs on May 22nd.

The Oyster Racing Series started in Denver in 2003.