local interest

I found a really cool blog today that includes recollections of Venice, Playa del Rey and Malibu from the late 1920's on. Great to read the first hand experiences of a native and learn a bit about the history of the area that I now call home. I mean, his childhood home is now subsumed by LAX! Wow.

Thanks, Cal Porter, for preserving the history for future generations.

in the name of love

After all those years in Texas, I deserve to encounter this when out walking in my neighborhood.  I did my time in Bush country.

voting for bigger surf and clean beaches

Now I'm bummed that I didn't get assigned to this polling station.  I may need to move closer to the beach...

better than tabasco in your eye

In case you are interested in such things, I am now a contributor on the Yo! Venice! blog.  Officially I'm supposed to be focusing on goings on within the Venice arts scene, but I can also write about other things -- I've kicked it off with a fascinating update on the status of a parking lot in my neighborhood*, because I'm exciting like that.  Anyway, yo, check it. 

And, uh, if you hear about anything arty or otherwise cool in Venice, shoot me a message about it.

*There actually is quite a controversy relating to the parking lot and there was an article about it in The New York Fucking Times (slow news day?) because some famous artist types with names like Ed Ruscha and Laddie John Dill would have their open air studios torn down under the initial plans for the lot (these guys closed in spaces behind their buildings on the public right-of-way many years ago to keep the local vagrant population that hangs there from bothering them while they were working; and no, adverse possession** doesn't seem like a claim that has much merit against the city, so they're working more of the public sympathy and desire to keep our famous artists in Venice angle).  I haven't heard whether some sort of accommodation was reached with the artists or not. Yes, it is still just an update on a parking lot. 

**Don't make me break out my bar prep mnemonic on this one. Don't make me remind you that I have passed three bar exams.  Don't make me think about the bar dues I'll be paying for at least the next year or so despite my hope not to have to practice again.  Just don't.

Whoa! Venice!

So yesterday there was a street festival on my street, Abbot Kinney Boulevard.  It was mostly kitchy artisan booths and food vendors and it was officially only a daytime event (10:00 a.m. thru 6:30 p.m.), though the neighborhood bars and restaurants opened up extra outside areas and stayed open well past the official end of the festival.  It was pretty fun, though we were about festival-ed out by 5 or so and we came home, watched bad football and fell asleep.

This morning I found out that around 9:30 p.m. there was a shooting outside one of the local bars that ended with one man killed and a woman seriously injured.  Not sure yet what the story is, but initial eyewitnesses fear it might be gang-related.  Venice historically had a huge gang problem that by all accounts has been cleaned up in recent years.  Needless to say that if gangs are ready to start shooting people on my street (at 9:30 at night!), that would be not good news at all.  We shall see.

Meanwhile, I'll be keeping up with the news and gossip on my favorite Venice blog: Yo! Venice!

setting fire to the third bar

I have found myself not blogging from time to time because I can't figure out a good title to sum up the point of the entry.  I've decided that is rather silly.  So anyway, the title to this entry has nothing to do with anything, but it is a wonderful song that happens to be in my mind right at this moment.  Moving on.

The party was a lot of fun.  We ended up with a lot of leftovers.  And in a tragic twist of fate (reminding you that I AM the queen of overstatement), our DirecTv was out on Sunday so we were unable to spend the entire day on the couch, munching leftovers and watching football games.  Drat.

So far this week, I've accomplished two big things on my random mental to do list:

1.  Purchased iPhone.  My observations so far are that the battery life leaves something to be desired and that I'm probably going to be right back to my obsessive-compulsive remote e-mail checking after a blissful 3 months of being PDA-free.  I can't seem to get my gmail properly forwarded however (after a couple of tries and despite having every single setting exactly as Gmail advises me to put them -- frustrating!) so I can see my e-mails on the iPhone right now but I can't send any.  I will have to figure this glitch out soon.

2.  Dyed hair a funky color.  This was a promise I made to myself when I was billing my life away.  I always said that I would dye my hair pink if/when I stopped answering to The Man.  Well, a few years later, I decided that I probably won't look that good as a cotton candy-haired late 30-something.  So instead, I worked out with my hairdresser (who I love) to have some fun color interspersed in the lower crown.  I now have dark pink/magenta underlights that peek through below my standard rich brunette color.  And when I'm feeling funky, I can pull back my hair and show a bit more color.  Fun!

This Sunday is Abbot Kinney Fest.  Our street will be closed for a street festival with three stages, artists/artisans, street performers, etc.  Should be interesting.  I'm thinking I won't be following much football this week.

hope progress change

The new apartment is about 85-90% set up.  We haven't put up pictures yet (or arranged other decor items) and I have a couple of shelves to go over my desk/bookcase area that need to be installed.  Also I still need to buy a desk chair (I'm lusting over this one, but feeling a bit foolish about spending over $1k on a desk chair).  And we need to decide what to do about a coffee table.  Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the living area of the new place.  I feel like it is going to end up being a very comfortable space.

fat bottomed girls

Well hello there.  How are things going with you?  I just wanted to let you know about my wonderful new bike.  I am now the proud owner of a 7 speed electra townie beach cruiser in metallic orange.  And, even better, I can ride it around my new neighborhood.  For errands or to exercise class or just down to the beach for some cruising.  Yes, I'm enjoying my new place.  Loft pictures to come soon...

there's no place like...

First night in the new place. So far I completely love it.

meet me at third and fairfax

ffffound.com had this cute little illustration up today and at first I was a bit alarmed because I am currently (one block) EAST of Fairfax (Avenue, Los Angeles) and I am about to move (several miles) WEST of Fairfax.  Doomed to a life of SUCK, it would seem.  

Until I remembered that I have lived in the vicinity of a Fairfax before.  As in Fairfax, Virginia.  In fact I have lived WEST of that particular Fairfax (by Dulles airport) and EAST of Fairfax (Falls Church) and I can confirm that the map is more or less on point with its biting analysis of NoVa suckage.  Well, not that Falls Church is all that cool, really, but it blows the doors off all points WEST of Fairfax.  

But then I thought -- wait just a minute -- I currently live WEST of Fairfax, Virginia and where I live now doesn't seem so SUCK to me.  Where does this map leave off?  Am I moving even further into the WEST of Fairfax, Virginia SUCK??  And where do these WEST and EAST directionals meet up anyway?  I need some sort of legend here.  Who makes a map without a legend, anyway?  And, wait, is the earth really flat????  And then I realized I really should go to bed.

Mind.  Blown.

[Uh, I probably should add, in the interest of full disclosure or whatever, and despite the damage it will do to the credibility of the above blog entry (to the extent it ever had any credibility), that the illustration is from the Popkiller website, which appears to be a trendy LA hipster clothing store.  So, yes, I am clearly moving from COOL (barely) to SUCK (totally).]

when the moon is in the seventh house...

Aspiring Hippie Chick Checklist:

1. Quit well-paying job working for The Man.

Check!

2. Spend free time taking art classes.

Check!

3. Move to Venice Beach, California.

Come early July, check! This is hopefully my next apartment building! We put in an application yesterday. Abbot Kinney is a fun, artsy area (originally envisioned as more of an artist colony than it actually is today, but it is one of those "no chains" neighborhoods* with a rare books store, galleries and a couple of coffee joints, none of which is called "Starbucks"). We'd be about 6-8 blocks from the beach. Less than a mile from Main Street shops and restaurants. Decent sushi place right next door. And, of course, a healthy (ha!) assortment of yoga and pilates studios within a mile. Picture me, riding a beach cruiser in flip flops, with my yoga mat rolled up in the basket. California dreamin'.

4. Wear flip flops everyday.

Mwwa-hahahahaa!

5. Never say "mwwa-hahahahaa", even in jest.

Crap.



*Though apparently the neighborhood lost a big anti-corporate fight recently and Pinkberry has invaded their no-chain zone.

big time

A few days ago I was driving into Hollywood mid-afternoon and I found myself behind a black VW Beetle that was adorned with BioDiesel stickers all over the back.* As we headed up the hill, my BioDiesel buddy was pretty slow on the uptake at stoplights and generally just takings its sweet time. I started wondering to myself whether BioDiesel had taken all the spry away from the cute little Bug when I looked a bit closer and noticed that, oh my god, the driver is being videotaped while he's driving! He's giving some sort of interview. And driving. The videocamera wasn't a little home version, it was a full-on giant-fuzzy-mic-attached professional videocamera. I'm sure I was watching an interview for some unfunded biodiesel documentary that will be trying to work its way into the film festival lineups in 2009.

Just one reason I love LA.



*(This blog was supposed to include photographic evidence but it turns out that I'm not any good at taking pictures with my camera-phone while driving. Who would have guessed??)

give me down-to-there hair

Mike and I have been spending a couple of hours per weekend at The Abbey since the weekend weather has been trending toward spectacular. The Abbey is originally (and still predominantly) a gay bar in West Hollywood with the best patio action in the city*.

Today I give you the list of interesting (some successful, some less so) hairstyles at The Abbey this lovely Sunday afternoon:

• Heat Miser-Modified Pompadour -- the twenty-something boy sporting this style really worked it. He had a lot of hair to work with and his strategy was to add a lot of product into a loose pompadour, which deconstructed over the couple of hours we were there into a not-so-modified Heat Miser 'do by the end of the day. I admit that Heat Miser is one of my faves, so it totally worked for me.
• Gremlins Mohawk -- according to Mike, the guy who had this short spiky mohawk looked a lot like the main evil Gremlin from the 1980's movie. Mike even knew that gremlin's name. I do not. I give it a Meh.
• Updated George Harrison -- this thirty-something guy had the center part and the long feathered locks that hearkened back to Let It Be-era George Harrison. This is a look you don't see often these days and I have to admit it was cool in a very retro sort of way.
• Cotton Candy Hair -- Recently dyed platinum blonde locks on a cute lesbian girl. Worked for her. Lots of product required to create the proper cotton candy texture.
• Trying-Too-Hard Rocker -- If you want to do the long hair dirtbag look, I shouldn't see the recently cut in layers and you shouldn't spend so much time scanning the crowd to see if anyone notices how little you are trying. Very LA.

*I still don't understand why Dallas has better patio options than LA does, as LA weather seems to lend itself to massive amounts of time sitting on the patio much more than Dallas does, but mine is not to question why...

craigslist, can you spare a dime?

Things I am looking for in my next apartment (search starts in earnest next month):

MUST HAVES:

2 or more bedrooms
located in Venice, Santa Monica (Ocean Park preferred to northern SM) or maybe West Hollywood
off-street parking (for 2 cars)
rent range between $2000-$3500
dishwasher
laundry on premises
allows cats
not gross

WOULD LIKES:

2 or more bathrooms
outdoor space (balcony or enclosed yard)
laundry in unit
large living room
hardwoods/tile
new construction or updated kitchen/baths
ample storage space

I've already started obsessively checking Craigslist postings. Will probably shell out for Westside Rentals subscription in April. Good times ahead.

an empowered and informed member of society

This summer I blogged about trouble at a pretty weird (but cool) multiunit building in Venice that Mike and I checked out one year when we were deciding whether to renew our lease or not (we did renew). The owner of the building didn't exactly follow the rules when he built the place - his permit allowed him to build to 30' and he built to 34' - and the surrounding neighbors didn't like the aesthetic of the place.

Well, there is more. Curbed LA tells me that the Venice City Council has voted to require the owner to comply with the 30' limit. Meaning the structure will most likely be torn down (unless he can somehow remove the top floor, but having seen the building, I doubt that would work, even if it were a cost-efficient alternative). It sounds like he broke some other rules - renting out too many units and somehow illegally obtaining electricity.

Still though, I feel bad for the guy. He really tried to do something different. The building has concrete floors with radiant heat and is entirely comprised of fiberglass windows/walls that open and close panel by panel. It was a bit commune-like (a Borg-inspired commune, if you will), with residents leaving doors open and wandering from unit to unit. Call me a cynic, but I have a feeling that if someone came in and built some run-of-the-mill townhomes that didn't comply with the building permits on that land, they wouldn't have received the same ruling.* And if you can't build a weirdo hippie commune box in Venice, California, then where oh where is there a place for such a thing in this great country of ours??


*Yes, I was the law student in Property class that got into a fight with my classmates about aesthetics zoning and restrictive covenants. Dammit, they should have left the people who built the jack-o-lantern house alone!!

rage against the machine(s)

Does anyone else think that we might be getting angrier and angrier as, like, a society? I am the first to admit that I've been known to get really mad at other drivers while sitting in traffic. And why not? People are more often concentrating more on their phone call or their children than on the road. We've started multi-tasking during tasks that really should warrant our complete attention. Such as hurtling down the street in a giant, gasoline-filled deathbox. Complete attention seems like a good idea, right?

Anyway. As part of my ongoing effort to be happier and to add zen to my life, I've made serious efforts to stop raging at other drivers. Live and let live. Practice diligence for both me and the other person who should be watching the road, so we don't end up colliding at some point (I really don't want to test out how well my airbags work).

Another sore spot for many is parking. I'll go ahead and admit that I drive a compact car and I've been known to curse SUV drivers who park in compact spaces, or generally cars that take up more than one parking space in tight Los Angeles parking lots. So it was with amusement that I read Kristy's post last week about a rude SUV driver (with the requisite Support Our Troops sticker) who took up two parking spaces. I'm totally on board with her posting the snapped picture and talking about how rude this person was on her blog. What surprised me though was the comments to Kristy's post. Sure, I know the internet gets all kinds of nutcases posting about crazy stuff, but really folks. People advocating keying cars of parking offenders or slashing tires. Let's take a moment for some perspective.

On the other hand, I am all for pointing out the horrible parking job to the offender, whether in person or by putting a note on the windshield. (I even included my story of confronting a rude-parker in person in her comments before they started getting a bit out of hand.) Let's just think a bit about scale of the wrong and why escalation is not good for anyone involved. Give [vehicular] peace a chance, man.

my now and future home

I really enjoyed reading this love note to Los Angeles. And I completely agree.

The whole thing is ridiculous. It's the most ridiculous city in the world – but everyone who lives there knows that. No one thinks that L.A. "works," or that it's well-designed, or that it's perfectly functional, or even that it makes sense to have put it there in the first place; they just think it's interesting. And they have fun there.

Yes, Randy Newman, we love it!

Come Play My Game*

I'm practically a walking billboard for Curbed LA these days, but I can't resist posting this link regarding the partial reopening of Griffith Park, post-fire. Now I'm picturing a bunch of goth kids wandering the merry-go-round, singing Prodigy. Sort of like the jets in West Side Story, but totally not.



*True confessions time: I'm not really sure whether this line is the background vocal in Firestarter or not, but when I'm singing along in my car, it is what I say. Then I say something like "psycho-somatic attic insane!" as the next background lyric, which I'm relatively certain is not correct. In case you are wondering, the lyrics websites seem to avoid this issue altogether by refusing to print the background vocals.

Walking in LA

Thanks to the good folks at Curbed LA* for linking to this amazing video of the walk down Wilshire Boulevard. All of it.

(Geek note: I was trying to embed this in my MySpace page with little or no luck - anyone who wants to tell me how to accomplish this feat (what changes to the code are necessary) will win my maybe-not-undying-but-at-least-several-day-long gratitude.)

(Geek note update: never mind. finally figured it out!)

*A great website for learning all there is to know about what's going on with housing/development in LA.

Even Hippies Have to Follow Zoning Rules

Last year when Mike and I were considering a move to Venice Beach (my hippie homeland), we took a look at a really unusual new building that was built with concrete floors, steel frame and fiberglass (I think) windows/walls. It was pretty cool and the guy who built it was a bit of a trip. It had 4 or 6 units and it was set up as sort of an open environment, where the occupants left the middle doors open and let their cats (I don't recall any dogs) and each other roam from unit to unit.

It wasn't us (as much as I'd like to think it was us), especially with Mike's music mixing hobby and our anti-social cat (and both of our concerns about living in a place with walls that thin/not soundproof). But we had a fun afternoon scoping the place out, talking to the man behind the plan and talking about what if it were us.

Anyway, I'm sad to hear that our hippie friend didn't exactly follow the rules and now he's in some hot water. Total bummer, dude.