A few months back, NPR asked me if I’d be interested in doing something on the upcoming film 500 Days of Summer. Once I heard that it starred Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt the answer was a resounding YES!

The film is fantastic. A sometimes sad, sometimes funny but always honest tale of what it’s like to fall for someone … HARD. The soundtrack is phenomenal, too. But one of my favorite parts of this film is that it shows a very different side of Los Angeles than what you usually see in film. It’s set in downtown at some great places - like the Redwood Bar.

So, that’s where I met up with Deschanel and Gordon Levitt to interview them for the piece… You can hear it on Weekend Edition Saturday on July 11th and right now on KPCC

And a special thanks to Zooey and Joe for being two of the coolest folks to spend an afternoon at the Redwood with… !

I was very lucky to score great seats at last night’s show at the Hollywood Bowl. The line up was the New Pornographers, Tegan and Sarah and finally Seattle indie-darlings Death Cab for Cutie.

At the end of the evening, Ben Gibbard and co. were joined by the L.A. Philharmonic. It was a great Reese’s peanut butter cups moment - classical music…? Death Cab for Cutie…? Who knew they could work so well together?!

To top it all off, there were some magnificent fireworks at the end! Earlier in the week, I had the good fortune of interviewing David Campbell. He was the conductor that night and did the orchestration for the concert and several others coming up at the Bowl including Ray Lamontagne and Faith Hill.

David Campbell also happens to be Beck’s dad (he looks JUST like him!) and a very nice guy.

Hi! In just a few hours, it will be July 2009. I can’t think of a better time to officially launch Los Angalex.com

So - what is Los Angalex.com? It’s a place for me to share stuff about things I love. Things like Los Angeles. Radio. Roller Derby.

I also love my husband a lot (thanks Rich for helping me out with Word Press!)

Tonight just about all I can think about is roller derby and two VERY exciting projects! One is Whip It! - a film about roller derby directed by Drew Barrymore and written by Shauna Cross. I was fortunate enough to work on the film - training the skaters, assisting with choreography… I even have a bit part in it as my derby alter-ego Axles of Evil!

The other project is a book called Down & Derby: The Insider’s Guide to Roller Derby. I’m writing it with my dear friend and fellow skater Jennifer “Kasey Bomber” Barbee. Look for that bad boy in Spring 2010.

Other upcoming projects I’m pretty excited about - profiles of Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer. And an interview with Beck’s Dad - David Campbell.

More soon… Thanks for stopping by!!