13 posts tagged “los angeles”
This new old timey event at The Hammer Musuem on Tuesday, November 10 looks like it will be tremendouns fun. If I go, I just know I won't be able to stop thinking about Grandpa Simpson and Steamboat Willie. Look for me -- I'll be the one giggling sporadically to herself in the middle-to-back section of the autditorium.
More information about this event here.
I spent my lunch hour today getting to and from Hollywood & Highland to pick up some finishing-touch accessories from both Claire's *and * Hot Topic. Good lord, do t(w)eens actually shop in those places un-ironically? If I never have to see a fake-jewel encrusted skull and crossbones again, it still might be too soon. But I got in and out of those hideous, sensory-overload dens of tweeniquity quickly, knowing exactly what I was after. I had to do it, because a strict dress code is being enforced.
For my own look, I've resurrected one of my old May Ball gowns from the late-90s. This one's a beaut, the Jessica McClintock dress I wore to the '98 St. John's Ball that had a Masquerade in Venice-type theme. As of this Saturday, it still had the grime from the festivities on it, plus the tear in the top layer where I'd put my heel through the dress. Luckily, though, at a high-end enough May Ball (e.g., Trinity, St. John's, Kings, Magdalene), there is a seamstress on-duty (!), and this one whip stitched the tear I clumsily made quite early on just beautifully to get me through the evening. Over this past weekend, I took the dress to the kind, elderly Korean couple who run the Hollymont Cleaners in Los Feliz to have the repairs done and the frock laundered. When I said I'd need it back by Tuesday (!), she kind of gulped and then -- only because I have a standing rel. w/ her -- circled the little "T" on the ticket and said I should come sometime before 7PM. (Thank you!!)
So glad my friend Devon has returned from her 5 weeks in Greece (on a dig) to Los Angeles. On Sunday, she and I got to meet up for the first time since she's been back, and walked down to the annual Lotus Festival in Echo Park. The usual booths of community orgs, food, wares, a stage w/ various performers (from local bands to a gaggle of pre-adolescent hula girls), &c. Mostly, it was nice being outside, in the not-too-humid weather catching up with my friend. We were most enthralled by the Echo Park Neighborhood Society table (I picked up a packet of vintage print postcards and a nifty historical map of the area) as well as the vast array of succulents for sale from the Cactus Ranch in Reseda (19420 Saticoy St). We plan on taking a field trip out there soon. You only think it's not exciting, but stay tuned! I promise to take my camera to document the adventure.
Saturday night, I went to my friends', Katie Shapiro and Jeff McLane, photography show, "Coastal States". It was a group exhibit at a space in Highland Park / Eagle Rock area with a bunch of her friends from Cal Arts. Hadn't seen Katie or Jeff in a while, so it was nice to catch up a bit. I was there with two of my friends from USC, Marci (who's off to TX to teach Chicano Lit in the English Dept at UT Pan American) and Sam Park, who teaches mainly drama in the English Dept at Columbia Art College in Chicago. We dished, dined and reminisced over delicious organic Vietnamese food at Lemongrass in Eagle Rock, then headed to cleanse our palates (but not our thoughts) at Pink Berry in Silver Lake. Perfect icy, tart end to the evening.
Already planning for next weekend: Devon and I are taking the train down to Anaheim to see the Red Sox game. Never been to the Angel's Disney-fied stadium, so that should be fun. Always enjoy a day at a ball game, too.
And then, of course, there's "The Dark Knight." And, I have yet to see Hellboy 2, so next weekend should be equally packed with diversion.
You may not think that rain is an auspicious start to the weekend, but if you lived in Los Angeles, you would. You know what else is auspicious? Getting to see Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch for the first time in your life at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on a 70mm print.
Sure, the sound on the 1993 print was a little wonky in places and every other reel change, the projectionist overshot the frame, but who cares? All those over-the-hill man's men trying to eek out one last score before calling it a career, and attempting to do so without losing their dignity or betraying their code of ethics. If this movie were remade today (why isn't anyone doing that? I'm surprised...) they'd cast a bunch of guys who were way too young and comely in the parts of Bill Holden and Ernest Borgnine. Not to mention every single woman in the movie was, how to put this kindly, used up looking and past her prime. (Maybe with the exception of one or two.) The grittiness of the thing and the harsh realism of the casting lends the film a great deal of its '70s era charm. (Yes, yes; I know it came out in 1969). The make-up in the gun-play sequences is primitive, but the action set pieces are first rate, my favorite being the interception of the train with the shipment of U.S. army munitions. That kind of train robbery scene harks right back to the earliest commercial cinema in this country, and Peckinpah delivers his version of it with tension and even emotion (!). There's a level of male camaraderie in this picture that seeps out of every frame. I almost felt like the undercover girl at a stag party, or in the room for cigars and cognac when I should've been discussing the latest fashions with the ladies in the drawing room -- and not just because the Cinematheque's audience tends to skew toward the older male. It's the way Bill Holden and Ernest Borgnine look at each other. It's the way Holden stands up to the more mutinous of his men when they want to ditch certain members of the team. But Holden is all or nothing, and not afraid of commitment, at least not to his buddies or his sense of honor.
After the show, the rain was starting to come down. I hemmed and hawed in my mind over whether or not to go to the Ben Templesmith show at the Secret Headquarters. My compromise with myself, since I'd left my car umbrella in my gym bag at my apartment, was to swing by the comic store and if there was parking, I'd stay. If not, I'd call it a night. Well, there was a single rock star parking space right in front of the store, so I went in. The party was in full swing, with original drawings of Templesmith's -- most from 30 Days of Night, but also from other works -- up on the walls. I picked up the first trade volume of Fell, and chatted up Mr. Templesmith (& and his wife Lorelei) for a bit after he signed my copy. Knowing absolutely nothing biographical about the man, I asked him what part of England he hailed from, only to be greeted with some faint grumbling. He's from Australia, it turns out, but he cut me some slack because his dad's English, he said, and so his accent's a bit mixed-up. He reassured me, adamantly, that everything I know about Australians from Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin is a lie. He also gave me the unfiltered truth about how Australians truly felt about the death of the Crocodile Hunter. Let's just say, not sad. (Harsh!) He says he's been in L.A. only a few days on this trip, but that he's planning to move to San Diego in the near future. I asked if it was to be close to Comic Con. No, he laughed, it's where his wife lives. I asked Lorelei how they met. At Comic Con, of course! She was working for IDW back then, and pulled a late shift, covering for someone on a day she wasn't even supposed to work. This one guy kept lingering around when all she wanted to do was close up her booth and go home. Guess who it was? Ben. (Awww.) I finished my complimentary Corona and headed home to hunker down with my comics and maybe a nice cup of tea.
The girls and I headed out for Eagle Rock this afternoon in search of brunch at Larkin's. It was only alright, which is damning in a city of superior weekend brunch options. The mood set by Larkin's was fine -- a converted old craftsman style house, friendly waitstaff -- but the food left something to be desired. I think it might've been soul.
Now, Larkin's is a restaurant that touts itself as a soul-infused sort of establishment. Soul food for the vegetarian hipster set, if you will. I applaud their simple menu (chose any three from a short list of menu items), but I wanted more panache in the presentation and frankly more flavor in the food.
The french toast, thick slabs of sourdough encrusted with corn meal, sugar and cinnamon, was really first rate, but everything else on my plate -- and my brunching companions' plates -- was only just "meh." Scrambled eggs that were a distressingly grayish hue and seasoned w/ slightly too much salt by the cook. My vegetarian sausage patties were undercooked and mushy at the center. The coffee -- both the decaf and the regular -- was burnt, and needed some serious doctoring to become palatable.
The lunch and dinner menus look more inspired and tempting. I'd be willing to give Larkin's another chance at some other time of the day on another day of the week; Sunday brunch is sacred.
Larkin's Restaurant
1546 Colorado Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Devon put it exactly right when we got to the Music Center downtown and surveyed the large crowd gathered for KCRW's first installment of Uptown Underground featuring outdoor drinks and artwork set to the dulcet grooves of Jason Bentley at the tables: "Silver Lake and Echo Park must be empty tonight." Indeed, a sea of hipsters (including ourselves, I suppose) had descended on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to experience the event. The weather, after a full day of rain, was fittingly chilly and damp for the first
Intelligentsia, spawned in Chicago, is finally opening its doors at its new, hotly anticipated Silver Lake location today. My sources tell me they started serving delicious java at noon on Friday, August 17. Stop by later this evening, though, for their open house.
Festivities begin at 7 PM, on the eve of the Sunset Junction Street Fair.
- DJ
- Booze
- Small Plates
- Coffee (of course)
3922 West Sunset Blvd @ Hyperion
Official site for Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea
EaterLA is reporting that überkitsch, Tyrolean bierhall, Lowen Brau Keller is likely closing at the end of the month. This is very sad news, indeed. If you haven't been inside this time-warp of a restaurant, rush over and experience the place at least once before it's nothing more than a memory. Spaten on tap. Delicious German food: various wursts, schnitzel, tasty sauerkraut, a very good kartoffelnsalat and a geschmackvoll beet salad. It's not such a vegetarian friendly place, but there is a farmer's plate that caters to those who abstain. Plus, their potato pancakes with applesauce are mighty tasty. Finish off with strudel. Get ready for sensory overload from the baroque Austrian decor that covers every available square inch of the place, and also get ready for a somewhat surly and mercurial waitress and a chef who tends to send food out on her own sweet schedule. But these, too, are 'authentic' in their own way. I'm going to miss this place.
Lowen Brau Keller
3211 Beverly Blvd (1 1/2 blks east of Hoover)
Open till around 11 Mon-Sat. Closed Sundays.
For my friend Christine's birthday, we went out for all-girls brunch at Square One Dining. I had been hearing about this neighborhood place for some time, and listening to Evan Kleiman's Good Food show yesterday on KCRW, I was reminded of its much vaunted tastiness and proximity. Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold was extolling its virtues in his run down of best places for bacon dishes in Los Angeles. Even though I'm vegetarian these days, I confess: sometimes I do still miss bacon. And, I know my friends like (read: love) it, so we settled in for brunch with whetted appetites.
On weekends only, they make a scrumptious and impossibly moist maple-pecan coffee cake, which Devon ordered with a pair of poached eggs, toast, side salad and some rashers of that sinfully good looking, artisinal Nueske's of Wisconsin bacon. This bacon appeared to be everything I had been expecting it to be: dark slabs of maple-y goodness in very thick-cut slices. It was almost enough to make me surrender to the bacon. I didn't, though. Christine ordered the baked frittata, which had all kinds of yummy things in it, including bits of the bacon and came with another kind of toast. I splurged and got the poached eggs with smoked salmon, served over the most amazingly flaky and crisp potato pancakes ever and drizzled generously with hollandaise. I got the greens on the side to cut some of the richness (and was glad I did), though you could also
The staff is friendly and efficient. The interior dining area is bright and cheerful in a modern way, but on the small side. They do have a good sized patio in back, which is where we were seated. I think I'd opt for indoors next time, though, to avoid flies and the sun. It could be shadier. They need more foliage back there instead of just umbrellas. Even though the place is hipster central, it only took about 20 minutes for us to get a table during the brunch rush. Not bad at all. Far less impacted than HOME, S&W Country Diner, The Griddle or Doughboys (all favorites of mine) during weekend brunch. I can't wait to go back!
Square One Dining
4854 Fountain Ave. (@ Catalina, right behind the Scientology compound)
323.661.1109
Open for Breakfast and Lunch only.
