L.A. in 24 hrs.

What would you do if an out-of-town friend said she wanted to experience L.A. through your eyes and had only 24 hours to do so? Well, this is the exact challenge posed by my colleague Suzanne, who was in town (from Sacramento) on Friday for a workshop and not flying out till Saturday night. After much excited deliberation, Tim and I pulled together the following itinerary:

1. Dinner Friday night - Border Grill is the westside’s self-designated “urban cantina” created by celebrity chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, the Food Network’s “Too Hot Tamales.” Although Los Angeles is in the midst of its two-week DineLA festivities--where restaurants around town serve price-fixe meals at a reduced cost--we all decided to order off the menu--pork (no big surprise there!)--and had a fabulous dinner. Welcome to L.A.!




2. Main St., Venice, CA - Suzanne was staying in Santa Monica, so we picked her up Saturday morning and drove back to Culver City via Main St. in Venice. Two blocks away from the zaniness of Venice beach, Main St. is home to upscale shops and restaurants (Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois--yum!) as well as unusual architecture: the 10-ft. clown ballerina and Frank Gehry’s binocular building. We then cut over to Venice Blvd. via Abbott-Kinney (more upscale shops and restaurants), all the while regaling Suzanne with tales of the old Venice pier and the long-gone “red car” inner-city railroads.















3. Downtown Culver City - after a quick tour of our house and gardens, we zipped through the trendy part of Culver City and waved at Culver Studios, where exterior shots of Tara, in Gone with the Wind, were supposedly filmed. We wanted to go up to Kenneth Hahn Park to showoff the L.A. basin in its snowcapped glory, but the view was obscured by clouds and so we zoomed on to our next destination instead. (The photo at the top of this entry was taken on a clear day two weeks ago after the rains.)




4. Farmers Market - As I’ve said elsewhere on this blog, the Original Farmers Market is one of my favorite places in L.A. Established in 1934, the market is a diverse conglomeration of food booths, tourist traps, and fruit stands, all with their own charm and stories to tell. Next to the Market is The Grove, an open-air, pedestrian-friendly mall that caters to the Beverly Hills set. We were worried when naysayers predicted the opulent Grove would diminish the more traditional Market. But just like everything else in the city, Old-school has managed to live in harmony with the New, making Farmers Market the single most quintessential symbol of Los Angeles.




5. Youngwood Court - No tour of L.A. is complete without a quick peek at Youngwood Court--or as we like to call it, the House of Davids--on 3rd St. and Muirfield in prestigious Hancock Park. The house boasts not one but seventeen (!!) copies of Michelangelo’s David, all of which are dressed in red velvet jackets and hats during the holidays. We feel bad for the neighbors, but can’t help stopping by periodically to see what new statues have been added. And, of course, out-of-town guests are always amused!




6. Hollywood sign - Suzanne had never seen the world-famous sign, so we headed up Vine St. toward Hollywood. On a clear day you can actually see the Hollywood sign (barely!) from the end of our block. But the very best view is from Lake Hollywood, the reservoir built above L.A. by William Mullholland in the early 1920s. As a kid, I'd never heard of the lake even though it’s a mere handful of miles from where I grew-up in Burbank. Tim and I discovered it when we moved back here in the 1990s and frequently walked around its perimeter when we lived in the mid-city. The dam is a marvel that’s completely invisible to the naked eyes of those wandering around Hollywood. Still, the main reason to visit is the up-close-and-personal view it affords of the ever iconic Hollywood sign. Click here for directions.




7. Driving home - We decided to take the long way home and so drove along Ventura Blvd. to give Suzanne a taste of the nicer parts of The Valley. We then shot up Beverly Glen so she could see the famous “stilt houses” perched precariously above the canyon. Suzanne had already seen Sunset Blvd. and UCLA, so I pointed the car south to Culver City. She was back at the airport by 6PM. Her tourguides were asleep in front of the TV by 9:30PM!

Food Trucks L.A.

One of the hottest culinary crazes in Los Angeles right now is food trucks. Basically these are good old-fashioned “roach coaches,” except they serve gourmet food: fusion Mex-Asian tacos, barbecue, breakfast foods, desserts, etc. Since they park all over the city, customers track their whereabouts via Twitter and (sometimes) the Internet.

We don’t do Twitter, but we are all about good food, so Tim was thrilled when his favorite dining blog mentioned that some of the most popular catering trucks were holding a mini-benefit for Haiti on the westside today, 11AM-4PM! I was already committed to guest lecturing in a class at UCLA, but agreed to meet Tim at the event (halfway between home and campus) afterward.

At noon, I called and said I was on my way. Fifteen minutes later Tim called to say he had arrived but there was no parking. Though I was three blocks away, I parked in the first vacant spot I could find. I then got out and started walking toward the site. We found each other somewhere in the middle.

The place was mobbed with mostly young, hip westsiders. More than twenty food trucks were there, too, including Asian Soul Kitchen, Barbie’s Q (barbecue), Buttermilk Truck (pancakes!), Calbi BBQ, Don Chow Tacos, Dosa Truck, Fishlips Sushi, The Flying Pig, The Grilled Cheese Truck, India Jones, King Kone (ice cream), LA FuXion, Louks To Go, Nom Nom, Phamish (Vietnamese), Slice Truck (pizza), South Philly Experience (cheese steak), The Sweets Truck (desserts), and Vesuvio (Italian). People were either standing on line or already eating.

We winded our way through the crowds to see which dishes caught our fancy. I finally settled on Barbie’s Q and waited on line for 20 minutes before placing our order: a pulled pork sandwich for Tim and a “Q” sampler for me (3 small pork and chicken sandwiches). As the cashier handed me Tim’s sandwich, I heard the chef say they were now out of pork. The cashier asked if I could change my order.

“OK. The Q sampler with just three chicken sandwiches,” which the cashier then communicated to the chef.

“Sorry,” he yelled. “We’re now all out of chicken!”

Argh. I got my money back and shared Tim’s sandwich--one of the best pulled pork sandwiches I’ve ever had, by the way.

Still hungry, we went looking for more food. I bought a kabob salad to take home, while Tim stood on another long line for Vietnamese food. Meanwhile, I rushed over to Sweets Truck to grab some pastries I had eyeballed as we were surveying our options. My lips were smackin’ for a couple of cherry cupcakes in the window, when a person two people ahead of me snatched them up! Dejected, I announced it was time to go home as soon as Tim finished his pork banh mi.

I was walking back to the car when I spied a lone food truck, Dainty Cakes, turning the corner. Either they had already sold all their inventory and were heading home or were just arriving. I didn’t remember seeing them before--and believe me, I definitely would have remembered a truck selling cupcakes!--so decided to watch where they went. A young woman, who also spotted them, yelled out, “Dainty Cakes!” and told her friends she would tweet them her location as she starting running after the truck! I almost followed her, but at that point the truck turned right, so I decided to stay where I was in case it came back around. Sure enough, it circled the block and the young woman, who had also returned, and I ran over to where it was obviously going to park. We waved our arms, directing the driver to back-up and then move up six inches, etc., while planting our feet firmly on line (first and second places). The young woman's friends then joined us, laughing hysterically at these two crazy women so obsessed with eating cupcakes.

But we weren’t the only ones. By the time the gals in the truck were ready for our business, some forty people had lined up behind us. I ordered my three cupcakes--no cherry, so got lemon, coconut, and chocolate instead--and watched patiently as one of the gals applied my favorite frosting (cream cheese, please!) to each one. I then walked triumphantly back to the car with my booty while the rest of the hordes waited their turn. Tim and I devoured two of the cupcakes as soon as I got home. Damn good!

January 2010

Happy New Year!






Although we’ve done some fun stuff this month--including taking an exclusive members-only tour of the Grammy Museum’s small but fabulous “Elvis at 21” exhibit with renowned photographer Alfred Wertheimer (the exhibit is a must-see for early Elvis fans)--the new year has pretty much been spent finishing up the garage project. We painted inside and out, plus bought a great neon Coca-Cola clock as a centerpiece for what I’m now calling our “garage clubhouse” (cue Tim to roll his eyes). But then the rains came, squashing all desire to complete what little cleaning and organizing still remains. I hope to post photos of the finished project by mid-February.










Rain, rain, go away:

Just when I was going to gloat about wildflowers blooming while the rest of the country sits under two feet of snow, our weather turned cold and nasty, forcing us indoors. Because, of course, when it rains in L.A. it doesn’t just rain, it pours, often causing damage of biblical proportions--or, at least, that’s what the local media would have us believe. Our own street usually turns into a small lake, while the otherwise benign Ballona “creek,” which runs at the end of our block, becomes a raging, frothing river. For a week, I’ve been cooped-up inside, leaving the house for only the most important essentials: food and the one-cent frame sale at Aaron Bros. Art Mart! Our two toasty cats have become our favorite indoor accessories.

Here’s hoping February is a lot more sunny and productive . . .

A Rogue's Gallery

We’ve been fans of Ricky Jay since he played the cameraperson in Boogie Nights, one of my all-time favorite movies. Since then he’s appeared in David Mamet’s Heist and numerous other movies, the HBO series Deadwood, and was a recently revealed clue to the mystery behind the current TV show FlashForward. But he is probably best known for being a master sleight-of-hand artist as well as scholar and collector of curiosities.

Several years ago we saw Ricky speak at the UCLA library, where he described his fascination for all things unusual and deceptive: e.g., 19th century automatons, carnival folk, notorious card sharps, and illusionists. A few years later, we bought front-row tickets for Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, an intimate show where he performed the most amazing card tricks either of us had ever seen. We talked about it for weeks.

On Tuesday, we attended the opening night of A Rogue’s Gallery, Ricky Jay’s latest show. The performance was hugely engaging, even though we were seated in the very last row of the balcony (comp tickets for making a donation to the Geffen Playhouse’s education fund). In addition to his usual card tricks and fetes of mental magic, Ricky projected images of 108 posters, playbills, and other paper items—a mere fraction of the marvelous ephemera he has collected—which then led to amusing tales of sword-swallowing women, lion-tamers, and other interesting characters. All in all, a highly entertaining evening.

A Rogue’s Gallery is playing at the Geffen till January 10. Go see it if you like parlor tricks and/or good ol’ fashioned storytelling.

Season's Greetings 2009

Looking back on another memorable year!

Highlights and accomplishments:

Vacationed for a week in Philadelphia and NYC; spent the weekend in Phoenix for baseball spring training; remodeled the garage into a sparkling new outdoor den/storage area; became charter members of the new Grammy Museum, where we’ve already attended several amazing events, including interviews with Brian Wilson and David Letterman’s bandleader Paul Shaffer; helped build studios for ESPN’s new radio station in downtown L.A. (Tim); chaired the committee that planned the 2009 statewide California Library Association conference (me); and met actor extraordinaire Neil Patrick Harris (be still my heart!).



What we’re grateful for:

Family, friends, jobs we love, and good health; living in Culver City, L.A.’s most happenin’ neighborhood; our cats Beanie and Cecil, who are now 9 years old and continue to bring us joy; and our new great-nephew Henry Nash Clark (thanks Beckie and Steve!).

What we’re looking forward to in 2010:

Trips to Portland and Washington D.C.; playing with our new Apple computer (thanks Santa!); and watching the wildflowers bloom in our yards next spring.

Have a wonderful new year. Our love to all!

Mary Poppins

I was only 10 years old when I had my appendix removed in 1964. I remember the pain and my mother crying. But I also remember, quite fondly, the book that kept me company while I was in the hospital: Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers. It was the first full-length novel I read and was thoroughly enchanting. We had seen the movie, which came out earlier that year, but there was something quite captivating about the book’s Mary Poppins. She has held a special place in my heart ever since.

One of the reasons I subscribed to Ahmanson theater season tickets this year was to see Disney’s musical adaptation of Mary Poppins. I originally had tickets with Karen, but had to change dates because of out-of-town guests. So I went by myself last night (Tim is not a fan of the nanny). I had a third-row center seat—absolutely perfect. It was me and lots of parents with young children—and on a Wednesday night, too!

The play was wonderful, though slightly different from the movie. For one thing, this Mary is a lot less snooty than Julie Andrews and seems to genuinely care about her two wards, who are also very good in their roles. Bert is terrific and brings the house down during “Step in Time,” when he (spoiler alert!) dances upside-down on the stage ceiling. It was completely breath-taking! Mary also flies several times, which is exciting, especially for those of us afraid of heights. But the biggest thrill, of course, is “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Almost every cast member was on stage dancing and miming the letters of my favorite word when I was a kid. I wanted to scream the lyrics, but somehow managed to keep my mouth shut. The audience went wild.

As wonderful as Mary Poppins is, I always cry at the end when she (last spoiler alert!) leaves—partly because I wish she and Bert could stay together, but mostly because the magic is ending. The play is on till February 7. I highly recommend getting tickets right now before Mary flies off again.

Garage Remodel (pt. 2)

The workers are now gone and the remodel done. Now all we have to do is move everything into our wonderful new cabinets and paint inside and out. Thanks to Garage Envy and Mark's Windows for doing such a terrific job!



















More photos in a couple of weeks when it's all done!

Hollywood book-signing

File this one under “only-in-L.A.!”

Tim and I went to a book-signing last night at the fabulous streamline-moderne Crossroads of the World, Sunset Boulevard’s earliest (1936) outdoor mall. The centerpiece was Los Angeles: Portrait of a City, a gorgeous new coffeetable book by Jim Heimann and former state librarian Kevin Starr, whom I know professionally. We were greeted by klieg lights and some 200 people dressed like they were going to an old-time movie premier; but, unfortunately, no Dr. Starr.

Still, there was plenty of other local literati to ogle, including Diane Keaton, looking very much like her alter-ego Annie Hall, Rodney Bingenheimer, former rock DJ and subject of the excellent documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip, and Hugh Hefner, wearing a suit and sporty fedora. Hef’s entourage did a good job of shielding him from the rest of the crowd—which was just as well since he’s looking pretty old and frail these days. At one point, we saw his attractive blonde assistant (girlfriend?) yelling in his ear, “DO YOU WANT TO WAIT HERE WHILE I CALL FOR THE CAR?,” so we figured he’s also now hard-of-hearing.

Champagne and several alcoholic beverages flowed freely, but there was nothing to eat. We milled around and chatted with colleagues, who also happened to be there, while keeping our eyes peeled for hors d’oeuvres. Finally, after about an hour, a young woman walked our way carrying a tray of square food.

“What are these?” Tim asked her.

“Focaccia,” she answered, as if we were children. “It’s like bread, but with truffles on top.”

I rolled my eyes and popped one in my mouth. Tasty, but hardly a meal.

We looked at each other and started heading toward the door. No use trying to be hip when your stomach’s growling! So we grabbed our book, bid Hollywood adieu and drove straight to our favorite pizza joint in Culver City. Two slices of cheese, please!

Stay-cation (11/6-11/15)

Saturday

What would you do if you were spending a week in Los Angeles? Well, we started our nine-day stay-cation by eating (of course!) at The Oinkster in Eagle Rock, one of Guy Fieri’s featured “diners, drive-ins and dives.” Those are shredded pork sandwiches and twice-baked fries in the before-and-after photos—yummm-eee!








Sunday

We’re all about mid-century living, so naturally we took the L.A. Conservancy’s tour celebrating the 50-year anniversary of 1960s architecture in Los Angeles. It started at the Proud Bird, a funky restaurant surrounded by old aircraft, including the orange rocket Chuck Yeager flew when he broke the sound barrier in 1947. Located on the eastern end of LAX, the Bird is the perfect spot to watch planes land while wolfing down Sunday brunch.

From the Proud Bird, we drove over to the Flight Path Museum, the former Imperial Terminal building where many VIPS and local sports teams board chartered airplanes. Now a free museum open five days a week, the Flight Path chronicles the history of LAX through photographs and fascinating artifacts. Most of the stewardess mannequins were dressed in their finest polyester suits and miniskirts. We also got to board an old DC-3 plane permanently parked behind the museum. Though we never left the ground, the thought of flying in such cramped quarters made me (relatively!) happy for today’s much larger—if less glamorous—737s.







Our next stop was the Theme Building, LAX’s iconic hub that looks like something out of the space-age cartoon, The Jetsons. Turns out it was actually modeled after Martian spacecraft in the 1953 movie War of the Worlds (who knew?). Built in 1961, the Theme Building is currently undergoing renovation after a chunk of concrete fell off one its four arched legs. Retrofitting won’t be completed till next year; still, we were able to go up to the observation deck, which has been closed since 9/11. The view of the entire airport was magnificent.






Tuesday

Although I’m a loyal member of the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA), the thought of driving up to mid-Wilshire—one of the most congested parts of the city—is sometimes just too much to bear. So it’s been a while since we’ve visited the museum. However, Tim and I were sufficiently intrigued by an exhibit celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall that we spent much of Tuesday at the museum and environs. I loved the permanent display of old L.A. light standards that now greets LACMA visitors. We were also impressed by the Wall, which has been temporarily installed across the street.


















The best part of the day, though, was (finally!) getting into Mozza, possibly the best—and therefore, most popular— gourmet pizzeria in all of Los Angeles. The trick is to go at 2PM on Tuesday. But even then, it was crowded. We were lucky to snag two seats at the counter, where we watched mesmerized as the cooks assembled and baked at least 20 pizzas while we were sitting there. Very entertaining and, of course, the food was amazing.

The rest of the week

In addition to running around and eating, we also met with friends, went to two plays, caught up on tivo, and saw five movies (a new world’s record even for us): An Education, the well-acted story of a 16-year-old student who has an affair with a con artist in the early 1960s; A Serious Man, the Coen brothers’ darkly funny semi-autobiographical film about growing-up Jewish in Minnesota; 2012, the ridiculously improbable yet fun disaster movie that revels in destroying Los Angeles and the rest of the world; Fantastic Mr. Fox, a truly wonderful stop-motion film that features the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep; and Women in Trouble, an extremely low-budget flick, starring some of my favorite actresses from TV shows Friday Night Lights, 24, and Entourage.

It was a fabulous week and only a taste of what it will be like once we retire. Only ten more years to go!!


P.S. Does anyone know what this is? (Tim is not allowed to guess!)

Garage Remodel (pt. 1)

We love our 1400 sq. ft. house, but after almost 13 years living here, we’ve pretty much reached critical mass on space. The simple act of buying a new set of towels can send me into a frenzy of reorganization as I endlessly cope with inadequate cabinets and closets. Plus our office, where I spend most of the day (I work at home), is a disaster area with books and files piled all over the floor. Desperate, I began seeking a solution. I didn’t have to look very far.

Like many people, our garage has slowly become a dumping ground for every nonessential thing in our lives: old furniture that’s too good to donate to Goodwill; mementoes from deceased family members; leftover tiles and linoleum from our kitchen remodel four years ago; boxes and boxes of Christmas ornaments (I swear they’re like rabbits, reproducing on their own every year between January and November); and, of course, my extensive collection of mint-in-box action figures from several Star Trek movies and TV series (!).

To make matters worse, the original homeowners had divided the garage into two sections by building a wall down the middle. On the left was space enough for one small car (ha!); on the right, a dark, musty workbench for tools, gardening implements and countless breeds of spiders. In other words, lots of wasted — but precious — space. So we held a big yard sale and called Garage Envy for a remodeling estimate. Three weeks later, we’re in the midst of converting our useless old garage into what we hope will be an attractive den/storage area. See for yourself . . .


















The view from our new garage window. Stay tuned for more . . .

October 2009

Did you ever have one of those months when you were too busy to breathe, let alone post blog updates. That’s our October! Here’s a thumbnail review of what we’ve been up to . . .

Cosmic Conjunction (10/4): The season of giving started early this year with a benefit concert on the lawn outside the Griffith Observatory. Wolfgang Puck provided dinner (honey-stung chicken with heirloom tomato and peach salad, potatoes, a corn Madelin, and red velvet cake), while we listened to music selected and conducted by Arthur B. Rubinstein, best known for directing various movie and TV soundtracks. The highlight was a new composition, fittingly called “Observations,” narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Hearing Mr. Spock relate the story of the birth of the cosmos, under a glorious harvest moon, was complete heaven on earth!

Sports Museum (10/8): ESPN cosponsored a fundraiser at the Sports Museum of Los Angeles, so naturally we went even though we didn’t know much about the cause, Junior Achievement of Southern California, before entering the event. Turns out both the Junior Achievement, a volunteer-based organization that teaches kids financial literacy, and the Museum, a 32,000 square-foot facility that holds the largest private collection of sports memorabilia in the world, were fabulous. Plus we got to see basketball great Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who apparently just stopped by for a snack. He’s very tall! For more details, click here.

Cocktails at Union Station (10/10): One of Tim’s favorite food critics is Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Gold, columnist for the L.A. Weekly. We’re also big fans of Zócalo Public Square, a nonprofit that presents local lectures and screenings in an attempt to broaden civic discourse. Their programs are provocative and always free. To help support Zócalo, Jonathan Gold hosted a cocktail party fundraiser at Union Station, one of downtown L.A.’s most beautiful architectural landmarks. Catering the event were several of the city’s trendiest restaurants: Mozza, Cut, Church & State, Palate, Providence, The Gorbals, Comme Ça, and Rivera. Tim is more a beer man and I don’t drink alcohol at all, so the whole cocktail thing was lost on us. But we did pretty much get drunk on the food: pig burgers (yum!), bufala & alici salad, bacon-wrapped Matzo balls, tortilla florales, and butterscotch budino. Tim also tried the pork terrine with pickled shitake, clam fritters, tuna tartare, and steak tartare sliders—all of which are outside my particular (some would say “peculiar”) taste palate. The best part was sharing a small table with Kevin Roderick, author of two of our fave L.A. books, Wilshire Boulevard and The San Fernando Valley. We managed to talk to him quite normally without gushing like the two star-struck fans we were.

Hollyhock House (10/13): A few days later, we got the opportunity to attend a preview screening of Visual Acoustics, a new documentary about our architectural photography hero Julius Shulman. The movie was screened at Barnsdall Park in east Hollywood, site of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Hollyhock House. Although both of us have lived in Los Angeles almost our entire lives, neither of us had ever toured the Hollyhock House, so we were thrilled to see the film as well as one of Wright’s most famous L.A. masterpieces—and all on the same night. Built of concrete, the house was magnificent, if a bit sterile (typical FLW). The doc was wonderful, too, and made us even sadder that Julius had just recently passed away.

Actors' Gang benefit (10/17): Though Tim had by now declared “no more fundraisers!,” even he couldn’t resist half-price tickets to a Sarah Silverman and Tenacious D concert benefiting the Actors' Gang, a Culver City-based theatrical group directed by Oscar-winner Tim Robbins. The event was held at the intimate Ivy Station, a former trolley stop that now houses a 99-seat theater. It was quite the scene. Not only were we on the older end of the demographic spectrum, we also didn’t wear black, which is apparently the hip color for young concertgoers. I may not have been cool, but at least I didn’t roast (like everyone else!) in my pink summer dress. Tenacious D was outrageous. Led by insane comedic actor Jack Black, the two-person group performed hysterical heavy metal parodies on acoustic guitars, while most of the audience sang along. I loved every minute.

Paul Shaffer (10/21): Pianist extraordinaire Paul Shaffer has lots of stories to tell. As the former bandleader on Saturday Night Live and David Letterman’s musical director for the past 27 years, he’s met and played with almost every rock and pop star alive today, plus a few who are no longer living. On Wednesday, he made a stop at the Grammy Museum to recount some of the stories found in his new book, We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Show-Biz Saga. We couldn’t resist seeing him. And lucky for us, too, because he was absolutely terrific—very funny and a brilliant raconteur. I can’t wait to read his book.

So that’s it so far. There are still five days left in October. Tim is hoping the Angels will make it into the World Series and I’ve got a big conference at the end of the week. But the really big news, which I’ll probably blog about next, is that, on top of everything else, we’re remodeling our garage! Stay tuned for news about the demolition later this week . . .