Alex Reid

Los Angeles artist Joel Kyack is helping drivers stuck in grid lock with some entertainment.

An idea conceived with Providence-based artist and bike mechanic Peter Fuller, Kyack will be driving his nondescript white pickup truck along different freeways throughout LA during evening rush hours once a week all this summer and when stuck, he will entertain neighbouring drivers with a puppet show from the back of his “mobile theater”. He will also have a soundtrack to the puppet show which he will be broadcasting to the nearby car stereos.

The artist “aims to briefly halt the progression of chaos by temporarily drawing the audience out of the commute experience and placing them within an intimate space of engagement and performance that highlights their own individual presence within the broader structure of the traffic jam.”

If you are going to be in LA any time this summer, check out his project’s twitter feed which gives daily updates as to where he will be. And then hope that you get stuck in a traffic jam.

The British Columbian town that recently was named the “best surf town” in North America is proposing a ban on fast food restaurants.

Right now there are no fast food restaurants and Tofino town councillor Stephen Ashton wants to keep it that way.

We are very unique where you can come to this place and you don’t have a Starbucks, Tim Hortons or a McDonalds,” said Ashton.

While Ashton acknowledges that such a bylaw may conflict with provincial or federal laws, Tofino wouldn’t be the first to ban fast food restaurants. In 2008, Los Angeles city council voted 12-0 to place an one-year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles, to combat obesity (where 30% of adults are obese).

Under California law, fast food restaurants are defined as establishments which have a limited menu, sell items prepared in advance or heated quickly, have no table service and serve food in disposable packaging.

Los Angeles’ City Council approved a Bicycle Bill of Rights.