Recommends:

(07.02.11) Recommends:

2011-07-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Enough Already.

So. I grew up in a household with a mother who was constantly correcting grammar. Were the corrections that she was making actually, like, correct? Yes, they were. How do I know this? Because I was a child. I didn't know anything then. So, whatever she said was correct. I'm not a child now. Yet probably I know less now than then. [1] However. My thoughts on grammar -- like Barack Obama's thoughts on gay marriage -- are "evolving."

My evolution is multifaceted, I suppose. It comes partly from annoyance at the self-righteousness of those who take up the self-appointed mantel of Grammar Police. Particularly because these are often people who, on the one hand, are so eager to express to you that they know how to differentiate between "your" and "you're" yet, on the other hand, whose actual expression is such that it is clear that they cannot make distinctions that are less than marginally more sophisticated, e.g., when to use "who" vs. "that" or when to use "regard" vs. "regards" or, good heavens, in a move that would make my mother blush, when to use "good" vs. "well."

It also comes from my reading of Steven Pinker. He managed both to confirm every suspicion that I ever had regarding the fraudulence of the Grammar Police while focusing me in on the idea that "grammar" is really two distinct concepts.

First, there is grammar as a system of understanding; e.g., in English, the subject-verb-object construction. e.g., "I drank soda last night." If you ask an English-speaking child what he did last night he might say "I drinked soda last night." Or: "I dranked soda last night." But he would never say, "Soda night I last drank." Thus, grammar is a system, a type of math requiring a basic set of rules and equations so that we may all communicate with each other. And it should be clear that nobody messes up this form of grammar [2]. This is what I call capital G Grammar. But this is not what the Grammar Police are after. (This would be much too subtle for the Grammar Police.)

Second, there is grammar as style. This is the "who" vs. "that" problem. The split infinitive problem. The double negative problem (e.g., ever experience Grammar Police labeling English language double negatives as "So Ghetto" while labeling French a "Romance Language"? Even though the basic "ne...pas" construction of French language is a...double negative. Whoops.[3]). This is grammar that the Grammar Police latch onto. This is what I call lower case g grammar.

Okay, all of this is by way of introduction. It's my way of saying that I'm composed of two sides, one of which does experience an increase in blood pressure when it experiences people maligning language -- i.e., lowercase g grammar -- while also understanding that these infractions rarely, if ever, interfere with Capital G Grammar.

However. There are some things that even my Grammar v. grammar enlightened mind cannot handle.

Today's example: "I was lucky enough to..."

Following find common forms of this construction:

"I was lucky enough to go to Harvard."

"I was lucky enough to get a job at Google."

"I was lucky enough to make an investment which made me a millionaire."

No. No! You were lucky. Not lucky enough. Lucky. As in:

You were lucky to go to Harvard.

You were lucky to get a job at Google.

You were lucky to make an investment which made you a millionaire.

This is either false humility or delusion at its finest.

Lucky enough suggests that your lot in life is mostly due to something that you, um, did. And while I believe that's rarely the case, let me be clear. I fully believe that people who went to Harvard are smart. And worked hard. And received good grades and test scores. And so forth and so on. And deserved to be there. Fine. So say: "I deserved to go to Harvard." Or: "I worked hard and got into Harvard." Or: "I went to Harvard." Or my preferred edit: "I was lucky to go to Harvard."

Cuz you know what: you were lucky to go there. There are millions and millions of people who would love to go to Harvard. So stop with the enough already.

Saying you were "lucky enough" does two things.

First. It suggests that you, in all other respects and acting alone, were qualified e.g., for Harvard. And that it was a mere scintilla of "luck" that caused you to be at Harvard. When in fact it was almost certainly the other way around: you were mostly lucky and merely happened to do some good things along the way.

Like: Were you, e.g., born in the U.S. or were you born in Sub-Sahara Africa? Were you, e.g., the progeny of very smart parents? Were you, e.g., born fully functional or were you born with Down Syndrome? Etc etc? Was it the former?

Oh, it was?

Was the reason that you were born in/with the former due to hard work?

Oh, it wasn't?

Wanna know why?

It's because you weren't "lucky enough," dick face: you were just lucky.

Second. It suggests, as mentioned above, the most obnoxious form of false humility.

"I went to Harvard. That's a place of smart people. I'm a smart person. But it's uncouth to say so. So I'll say that I went to Harvard because I was lucky. It could have been any of us. It just happened to be me. I was lucky. I mean, lucky enough. All the rest of it was my raw smarts."

A closing note. This is not meant to be construed as a rant against Harvard! Harvard is totally cool and amazing. I somehow just kept typing it in above.

And the optimistic part of this rant is that, somehow, I come across really smart people constantly. Even people who went to Harvard! Really successful people. In all manners of the word successful. And the overwhelmingly vast majority of these people do not use the "lucky enough" construction! They actually just say "lucky." It makes my heart sing. And it makes me think there's something to my "false humility" conjecture. Probably there's a little insecurity mixed in with the false humility.

So sad. Because if only they were "secure enough" or "humble enough" rather than "lucky enough" they might be interesting people.

Regardless. Hence forth, please refrain from the "lucky enough" construction, people! And when you hear it, as you inevitably will, give the speaker a dirty glance! Because in the end, "lucky enough" is a much more offensive misuse of grammar than anything the Grammar Police will ever mention on their Facebook status feeds.

---

[1] Which is to say that this post has any number of "grammatical errors." But I've already beat you to the punch line. So you have nothing to gain in mentioning them to me. I already know. Even if I don't, like, already know. See what I did there?

[2] Unless there was some sort of severe neurological deficiency that made expression of this mathematical equation impossible. Which, in an unfortunate way, reiterates that grammar is fundamentally about communication and not style.

[3] Also, what does it say that the romance languages derive from something called Vulgar Latin?

(06.28.11) Recommends:

2011-06-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Curious World of East Hollywood, Circa 2009.

So, I just logged into my blog account. I used to do this more frequently. Alas. Once I logged in again, I opened up a partially completed blog post. From March 2009. It had many photographs of East Hollywood. I'll call it East Hollywood. Is East Hollywood actual and/or acceptable nomenclature? That's a funny thing about cities: vernacular which strikes up fierce controversy within a city relegated to mere words outside of it. E.g., in Los Angeles, having a debate about what is considered the West Side vis-a-vis the East Side strikes up all manner of ostensible controversy, touching on your inner thoughts and/or fears on race and economics and history and gentrification and hipsterdom and empire and manifest destiny and repressed childhood memories and dreams and dreams deferred and insecurities and hope and change and progress. And so forth and so on and etc. And etc. A discussion simultaneously interesting and overwhelmingly stupid: is the discussion food for thought or is it empty calories?

Outside of Los Angeles, I imagine most people think of Eastside/Westside as a rap rivalry created in the 90s, the westside of which is Los Angeles. Are gangstas Westside? Well, I'll let you pose that question to your favorite LA resident, or editor of your favorite LA blog (who may or may not be Ohio born and raised. Whatever.).

Anyway. I'm drifting. And probably hungry.

There was a certain amount of commentary on the blog post from circa March 2009. Commentary that was, on one hand, somewhat interesting, but on the other hand, destined never to be finished. So I've decided to publish anyway. With just the pictures.

This is a glimpse of my views, circa March 2009. Some of these views are no more: erased from the landscape, casualty to the slow, steady march of time. (march of '09, march of time -- i'm trying here, people!)

Maybe I'll come back some day and fill in with commentary. But what's that line? Something like, words should only be spoken when they say more than silence.

(05.20.11) Recommends:

2011-05-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters.

So, if you've been paying attention to the news -- real, quasi, pseudo, and otherwise -- lately, you've been hearing a lot of discussion of the "debt ceiling" and whether Congress should raise it. You have, e.g., the Patriots for Profit crowd off making noise in one corner. And then, e.g., Timothy Geithner is making equal and opposite noises in another corner. Things have become so desperate that CNN has even trotted out a FAQ to help us sort through all of the issues.

A helpful reminder: CNN is viewed primarily by the institutionalized and the incarcerated. The network's fearless, hunky leader, ~~Quinn the Medicine Woman~~ Anderson Cooper, was once host of reality television show The Mole. Becoming a "news" "reporter" for CNN is probably most properly viewed as a demotion. End tangent.

Anyway. Debts ceilings, the future of Western Civilization, etc etc. Honestly, the details of the story are mostly relayed to me by various correspondents, as I can rarely bring myself to watch television and even when I do I insist on turning the volume off and instead listening to old Sea Wolf songs.

But here's the thing. Every time I think of the topic, I know that I'm supposed to have a Position that I should get righteously indigent about. And yet, instead, my brain drifts off to a place I walked by on a recent night:

Following are several key things to notice:

1. This Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant is several stories tall.

2. EBT -- that's polite talk for "food stamps" -- is welcome at this KFC which, as has previously been mentioned, is several stories tall.

3. The restaurant sells enough product to keep the hundreds of thousands of square feet of the interior of the restaurant completely illuminated at 10pm, well past closing time, and yet many of the light bulbs announcing the name of the restaurant have burned out. I presume this is because when employees are asked to climb a ladder hundreds of feet to change said light bulbs most die of cardiac arrest before reaching the top.

All of which is to say: even if we get this debt ceiling thing figured out, we still have a very long ways to go.

Oh, yes: our 12-piece bucket of freedom drizzled in gravy still glows like a shining city on a hill, or like the flickering incandescent light bulbs of a neon fast food restaurant sign.

Or something. Or whatever.

But: But the garden that you planted remains.

(08.11.09) Recommends:

2009-08-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Scenes from a Recession, c. 2009.

lot, gower & melrose.

(01.19.09) Recommends:

2009-01-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

Ericailcane.

We learned about Ericailcane this weekend while we were walking down LaBrea. If you've been around LaBrea and Melrose lately perhaps you've seen this giant [some type of animal(1)] eating a car:

Further research revealed that this mural went up as part of Ericailcane's new show Man Is The Bastard at the nearby Carmichael Gallery. The gallery has a nice, er, gallery of photos from the show up on the website, if you can't see it in person.

But lovers of whimsical ink on paper work should give Ericailane a try.

(1) We use the term 'animal' with some trepidation since it appears to be wearing a very civilized pair of shoes.

(01.02.09) Recommends:

2009-01-02T19:36:00.001-08:00

New Year's Resolutions (Written on, and From the Prosepective of, My Blackberry Curve).

1. Lose the smudges. I want to come standard with a protective cover that prevents unsightly smudges and tiny micro-fractures in the screen. I'm becoming the Tammy Faye Baker of mobile devices. Ugh.

2. Flash people more often. I want to come with a web-browser that supports mutliple tabs and Flash (and a media player that can be easily minimized).

3. Become a sharp shooter. In a world under the reign of Web 2.0, convenience is increasingly valued over quality. But If I marginally increase the quality of my camera, I'll be Panglossian.

4. Learn to speak in tongues. When users are riding on the metro and publish blog posts to, e.g., Mobile Blogger, html tags should be recognized. (In reality, this is probably more of a Gmail issue. But, alas, the unexamined life is not worth living.)

5. Get fatter. My keys should be a little bigger, so even novices can confidently type with the meaty part of their thumbs rather than tentatively peck with the nail portion of their thumbs. (The BB Bold -- that tramp -- has the perfect sized keys, but I have the perfect amount of "clickiness")

6. Get braces. The F and J key -- or some appropriate combination -- should come with little notches, like on a standard keyboard, so even novices will be able to type while looking at the screen rather than looking at the keyboard.

7. Get timed. Changes in time zones and day light saving should occur automatically. Does this really not already happen?? Don't think it does. There's both a BB and "network" source for time and date, but nobody wants to take they time to figure out the difference.

8. Be nicer to friends. Texting a number not already in the address book takes too long. You have to scroll all the way up to the Use One Time (or whatever) option. As a result people never use me to text and everybody thinks I hate them. Sad face. (Of course, if my friends were really friends, they'd have BBM and this resolution would be mooted. Hint, hint ppl. Srsly.)

9. Get Logged. My call log feature is laughable. I know I'm a mobile computing device first and a phone second, but really, c'mon.

That's my 949 suckas!

(12.28.08) Recommends:

2008-12-28T08:30:00.001-08:00

Airport Confessions.

(Or, People Who Grabbed Our Attention This Year, Written While Flying To Denver).

The other day while on the way to the airport, we blogged about the events of 2K8 that grabbed our attention. Today we thought we'd pass the time on the first leg of our flight back blogging about the people (in the news) who came to dominate our attention this year. We're doing this on the fly, literally -- rim shot! -- so we'll miss some people. And naturally there will be some overlap from our list from earlier in the week. But here goes (and in no particular order).

1. The People Behind the Planet Money Podcast. Planet Money is a blog/podcast put out by NPR (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money). It is only a few months old, but consistantly put out what we thought was the best reporting of the financial meltdown in both its weekday podcast and in particular it's two, hour-long episodes produced in conjunction with This American Life. One of the things we find annoying about a lot of traditional journalism is the amount of assumed knowledge contained in a typical story. What we love about Planet Money is that takes on big economic issues and unpacks them in a manner that is digestable for a non-economist listener, but without dumbing down the content. The show doesn't assume you know what a CDO is. In fact, the reporters admit they're not really sure what certain things are (in fact, they often get the experts to admit that they aren't always sure what's going on -- simple enough definition of a bubble or a dubious scheme, we'd say). So they go hunt down the story and present it link by link. Clearly and systematically explaining each link and linkage. For our money, Adam Davidson is the star of the show.

2. Paul Krugman. We were first exposed to Krugman -- and hence to his enormous impact on the field -- as econ undergrads back in the late 90s-early 00s, before he started his stint as a NYTimes columnist. We mention this time frame because today some people view him as purely a political or partisan voice. While we've agreed with almost all of his critiques of the Bush Administration, particularly over the past three plus years (during which he increasingly took off the gloves, and was often alone in the wilderness as one of the lone, legitimate, mainstream voices doing so), we were never really convinced it took a first-rate, world-class -- indeed, 2008 Nobel Prize winner -- Economist to point out the failings of the Bush Administration. But as the financial crisis began unfolding in front of us this year, suddenly all the pieces that Krugman has been presenting over the years fell into place. During his time at the Times you arguably could have been forgiven for thinking he was just another member of the liberal elite ego machine, but in 2008 you simply couldn't say you were serious about understanding what was going on in the world financial markets without reading Krugman's column (and perhaps re-reading some of those 2004-06 wilderness era columns) and blog, and listening to him lecture.

3. Barack Obama. It's a funny paradox. The pace of Obama's meteoric rise has been perhaps unprecedented. But the length of the campaign was also perhaps unprecedented. Which made it easy to occassionally lose site of how inspiring we found Obama. After he gave The Speech in 2004 we -- along with most of our family and friends -- instictively knew he would win the 2008 election -- he hit a nerve that was so raw, so exposed, so waiting, yearning to be hit. 2008 was the year that instinct became reality. It'll be a year that history books will both, to paraphrase Lincoln, significantly note and long remember. And it's because of Obama.

4. David Plouffe. We both detested yet were inspired by Plouffe's incessant emails. Detested because the role of money in politics gives us the heebie-jeebies. But inspired because every time he asked he received so much goddam money. There is a fine line between money corrupting and people who normally don't care pitching in because they finally give a damn. Plouffe made us feel it was the latter that was happening. Plus, those "homemade strategy videos" he would sent out were pretty sweet, right?

5. Nate Silver. If you seriously followed this election, between September and November 04 you spent more hours at work checking FiveThirtyEight.com than working. The week after the election, you checked it like a man who loses his leg in war reports being able to feel his amputated leg. We're only now getting over it. We all know these three things to be true.

6. Shepard Fairey. 2008 was the year he went from being known as the guy who created an image that was widely influential in certain cultural circles, to creating the defining imagine of an historic election. There's no need to attempt to overstate Fairey's role in getting Obama elected, but there's no question that his iconic-imaging of Obama will go hand-in-hand with history's recounting of the election.

7. The Pirates. First we thought the stories were just kind of funny and odd and seemed out of place. Then we thought the Pirates were making a brave, populist stance against foreign overfishing. Then we feared that the world economy was certainly going to collapse and we were headed to a life based on the movie Water World. We still have a few more days in '08 to come up with a new story line. But the fact is we were glued to pirate stories this year.

Plane is landing. Perhaps more later.

(12.24.08) Recommends:

2008-12-24T06:16:00.000-08:00

Taxicab Confessions.

Stories That Grabbed Our Attention This Year, Written While in the Cab to LAX.

01. The election. This probably tops most people's list. From primaries to caucuses to FiveThirtyEight to that awful Sarah Palin person to the election of BH Obama, it was literally a year-long ride.

02. The near collapse of the world economy. Who thought we'd read with such interest stories about the TED spread and the commercial paper market. Every day tried to top the previous day in over-the-topness of bad news.

03. Pirates. A mixture of childlike fasination, admiration of the perhaps dubious populist stance of the pirates, and a fear that due to point 2, pirate economies would become more prevalant, we couldn't read enought about this.

04. Nebraska Anti-Abandonment Law. So NE passed a law meant to encourage parents who couldn't carry the burden of a baby, to turn newborns in rather than abandon them. Problem is, no age restriction was written into the law and something like 50 children, many as old as 17, were immediately given up. Law was amended in an emergency session.

05. Suicide of David Foster Wallace. If anybody could have put stories 1-4 into context of modern culture, it would have been Dave Wallace. When he checked out early, we feared mass confusion had finally carried the day. We all carry on, but with heavy hearts.

06. Myspace verdict. It's always hard to talk about the import of case law until years later when it's impact can be fully analyzed. But this case makes it a federal crime to violate a private company's terms of use. The back story makes this result easy to handle for casual observers, but it's theoretically taking us into murky waters.

Well, that's all the time we have. We're being lectured on taxicab credit card use by the driver and can no longer concentrate. What is up with the cash entitlement complex of cab drivers? I know it's marginally inconvenient for you, but it's marginally inconvenient for me to pay for the price of the ride. So it evens out, okay?

(12.23.08) Recommends:

2008-12-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Scenes From Little Armenia.

So the other day we were out walking around, exploring Little Armenia, which is a little neighborhood nestled roughly between Hollywood and Thai Town and which, incidentally (and somewhat inexplicably), has a pretty decent $20 all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant which has all of these elaborate restrictions on the all-you-can-eat meal, including an ominous, though we're guessing never enforced, threat written on the menu that you are being timed, and if you eat for too long you will be asked to leave. The place specializes in spicy sushi rolls, complete with a "if you can eat a certain amount of such and such spicy roll, we'll put your picture up on a wall." Again, all somewhat inexplicable.

Anyway. As we were saying. We were exploring the neighborhood and came across the following sign:

And the sign seemed pretty perfect. Here we were, in this pretty hard to explain neighborhood, during a time when the country and, in fact, literally the entire world, has been gripped by an almost palatable sense of weariness and nervousness and relentless bad news. And then we saw this sign and realized that though the people walking along the street might have differet lots in life, might be at different points in life, might be aiming for different goals in life, there are certain things that are common to us all. It's a useful thing to keep in the back of our minds, as we go about our day to day lives.

Update: More from Curtis Kulig here.

(12.18.08) Recommends:

2008-12-18T22:40:00.000-08:00

Introducing: The Red Line Diaries.

So, there's no question that we've become bored with this blog over the last several months. We've spent much more time engaging in short Twitter bursts, and playing around with other mobile blogging platforms. (In fact we're -- err, I'm -- typing this waiting on the metro platform on the way home from work, so please excuse the lack of links). To this end, we're developing a new blog -- working name The Red Line Diaries -- that we hope to debut, and link to in this space, very soon.

Ooop. Here comes our train. Talk soon.

(12.03.08) Recommends:

2008-12-03T05:58:00.000-08:00

Scenes from Crazy Hook.

Anybody who's been following our Twitter feed knows that we've been pretty obsessed with all these Pirate stories from the last few months. So, in the spirit of staying abreast of current events, we recently hit up our favorite neighborhood in Los Angeles, for a night out at Crazy Hook, Koreatown's very own dot, dot, dot pirate bar/restaurant.

One of the things we love about Koreatown is that its bar owners and restuaranteurs are not shy at taking on novelty themes (pirate bars, robot bars, etc) and not being too cool to actually really run with the themes. For intstance, take the Redwood Bar and Grill, which is located downtown and which we mentioned yesterday. It is billed as a pirate bar, but other than maybe a pirate flag and the bar having lots of dark wood and thus giving off a vaguely nautical feel, it's a "pirate bar" mostly because "hipsters" say it is.

Yeah, Crazyhook has pirate flags:

And, yeah, the interior is dark, wooden, and generally feels like you're on a boat.

And it has a pirate greeter who bares a striking resemblance to Grateful Dead guiatarist Bob Weir (in the foreground, and skeptical friends in the background):

It also has, of course, the obligatory one armed/one hooked pirate who would like to take his picture with you:

But lest you get too complacant around the pirates, know that they usually kidnap and string up at least one female patron nightly:

(note: this fact is more or less made up) There are pretty much dangerous pirates lurking in every dark corner of the place:

Of course, in addition to really taking the themes seriously, the other thing that Korean establishments use that, for reasons unbeknownst to us, their US counterparts have not gotten smart to, is the Booze Botton:

The genuis of the Booze Button is that the servers leave patrons alone to enjoy the company of their companions until the moment the group hits the button, then, seemingly out of nowhere, a server arrives leaving your group with exactly what you want when you want it (namely, centimeters and centimeters of yummy beer)

After a few centimeters of beer and the Crazy Hook sign starts showing up in all sorts of funky colors:

(12.02.08) Recommends:

2008-12-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

Signs You'd Probably Rather Not See.

So we recently visited Santa Monica with a friend. We were on a seafood eating excursion. Our destination was to be Enterprise Fish Co. It should be noted that there was a general reluctance on our part to visit this place because it contains some sketchy info on its website. If you don't click through the link, just know that it advertises a portion of the restaurant that offers "bottle service." Question Mark. Bottle service? At a seafood restaurant? Really? How can that possibly be necessary/justified/non-completely-obnoxious?

We were skeptical.

We were in the mood for oysters.

We gave it a try.

Here's a look at the place from the outside:

Now. We happen to love seafood. But we know a lot of otherwise reasonable people who do not. Some of these people don't like it because they don't like the "fishy smell." We can understand that, we just happen to be fine with the smell. The smell of raw sewage and/or possibly feces, on the otherhand? That's pretty much been universally discredited as an acceptable culinary aroma by now. It's unclear, however, whether Enterpirse Fish Co. ever received the memo, because when we went to open the doors, we saw this:

Yes, shut down because of a "sewage" violation. Yikes. Here's a copy of the code for those interested.

Bottle service was strike one. We're afraid sewage violations are strike two and three. Sigh.

(12.02.08) Recommends:

2008-12-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

The Hackensaw Boys.

It's been a rainy/misty/foggy start to the holiday season here in Los Angeles. And, for some reason, rainy/misty/foggy holidays makes us want to listen to bluegrass and drink beer with friends in a setting that features lots of wood, or fake wood paneling if wood is too expensive (and what with the economic crisis we're in, this is probable). We're completely serious about this. We're not sure why we feel this way, but we do. Sort of like how listening to the Strokes' album Room on Fire makes us think of driving around Kansas City with a gentle snow falling.

Well, as an aside, now that we think about it, we actually understand that Strokes connection. We were in the year between graduating college and moving on to our next adventure. We lived in a part of town that was ostensibly hip and as a result our car was broken into three times. The first two times, during the fall, just the windows were smashed but nothing was taken. We actually took this somewhat as an insult because we had hundreds of CDs strewn about the car and not a single one was taken. We figured the thief thought we had bad taste in music and were deeply offended. The third time was during the early winter, and apparently wanting to preserve energy during the cold season, the thief got tricky/steathy. We entered the car. Started it and headed to work. Silence. This seemed weird so we looked down at the car stereo. Only to see that the car stereo had been stolen. Again, all of the CDs we had were entact, but we happened to have the aforementioned Strokes album in the CD player so that one was lost. And in the interim, rather than just going to buy a new car CD player and a new Strokes CD, we would drive around with our laptop open, playing the CD through our laptop speakers (we happened to have, cough cough, downloaded the album prior to purchasing it). Because the part of town we lived in was more ostensibly hip than actually hip (we mean seriously, if this was an actual hip part of town the thief would have left us a goddam thank you note for allowing him/her to behold such an impressive CD collection; at the least s/he would have taken them all to look cool around friends. Not that we haven't gotten over the snub or anything), there were many nights were we'd have nothing interesting to do. So we'd drive a long loop around the city, listening to the Strokes Room on Fire as a light snow fell. The end.

Anyway. Moving on. Here are some pictures of a show that the Hackensaw Boys recently put on at the Redwood Bar & Grill, a random pirate-themed bar downtown. Pirate bar, of course it is. The Hackensaw Boys are a rowdy countrypunkbluegrass band and they put on a very entertaining live act.

We also recorded some sound. We like this first song because it's about The End Times Coming. And with transformative American authors commiting suicide, and worldwide financial meltdowns, and major/historic elections, and stories of pirates hijacking ships appearing with near daily regularity in the NY Times, and bad-action-movie-plot style attacks in India, all occuring within months of each other, it kinda sorta seems like this song might be on to something.

We like this next song because the band announces they're from Virgina, and if you listen closely, you can hear people in the crowd saying, in a nod to the McCain/Palin campaign and a nod to the memory of George Allen, "Welcome to America" and "the realVirgina?"

Finally, this last clip we like because, well, because the singer insists on making "Pirate noises" as the band looks for its missing fiddle player, and because the banjo player -- we've got a rather large soft spot on the banjo -- seems to get a little bored waiting and breaks into some killer banjo soloing. Yes, we went there: we just said killer banjo soloing.

Now, if you've gotten this far you may be saying to yourself: Man, it's kinda strange that you're into bluegrass music played in a manic style. Or: Man, it's kinda strange that there's a pirate-themed bar so far away from the craggy coastline of Somalia (Note: we think it's some sort of rule of AP Style that the NYTimes cannot draft an article about pirates without mentioning said pirates' proxmity off the "craggy coastline of Somalia," craggy being a word I've seen used in print perhaps never prior to Pirategate '08).

However. We submit that the strangest thing to come of all of this is that when we took the subway home -- from Union Station to the Hollywood/Vine station -- we noticed the top of the inside of Union Station is covered with hanging -- strategically or otherwise -- male manequin/blow up dolls -- or, omg, is it possible that they're Real Dolls; oh yikes, please say no. We're not kidding around:

(12.01.08) Recommends:

2008-12-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

WSO Update.

Holy moly it's been, like, years since we've updated here. So much has been going on in the world since September that the blog felt a little uncalled for. Plus, we've been cheating on Blogger and spending much of our online time spouting nonsense on Twitter and Tumblr. But now we've gotten over ourselves, and figured we could start sharing here again. It's the holiday seasons. Recommendations are needed. So last time we updated it was about the WSO show at the Hotel Cafe. Below are some of the sites and sounds we captured. (Note: we are on the verge of converting a bunch of .mpg files to .mp3 files, so the days of you having to click on a video that has little or no visible video and only sound are almost over. Recommended: patience.)

Some sites:

Some sounds:
Tilt

Ten Dead Dogs

(10.15.08) Recommends:

2008-10-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

Wild Sweet Orange at the Hotel Cafe.

We're lifting our head above water here to let people know that tomorrow a blog fave band, Wild Sweet Orange, plays at a blog fave venue, Hotel Cafe.

Here's some WSO tunes to get you in the mood.

Wild Sweet Orange -- Ten Dead Dogs -- mp3.

Wild Sweet Orange -- Either/Or -- mp3.

---

Previous write-ups on the band can be found here and here.

Previous write-ups of Hotel Cafe can be found here and here.

(10.08.08) Recommends:

2008-10-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

This American Life's Exploration of the Financial Crisis.

We've extolled the virtues of TAL on the blog many times. Most likely we're just preaching to the choir when we say it's one of the most important cultural voices coming out of this country. But their handling of the current economic crisis -- breaking it down into understandable terms -- exceeded even our expectations of what we thought the show was capable of producing. We don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that these two episodes might be the most important pieces of journalisms we'll consume this year. If you haven't listened already, you really need to hear these.

The Giant Pool of Money. This is the original episode; originally aired 05.09.08.

Another Frightening Show About the Economy. The follow-up episode, created due to the overwhelming popularity of the first episode; originally aired 10.03.08.

(09.24.08) Recommends:

2008-09-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Thoughts Ahead of President Bush's Address to the Nation Regarding Our Current Financial Crisis.

Okay, so we just heard that the President is going to address the country tonight. Obviously he's not known as the most articulate and/or thoughtful president that our nation has ever produced. So who knows what he'll say. But for some reason we now have a particular section from the Andrew Bird song Tables and Chairs stuck in our heads. Can't you just picture an episode of the Simpsons where an animated President Bush addresses a weary nation with the following:

I know we're going to meet some day
In the crumbled financial institutions of this land
There will be tables and chairs
There'll be pony rides and dancing bears
There'll even be a band
Cause listen, after the fall there will be no more countries
No currencies at all, we're gonna live on our wits
We're gonna throw away survival kits,
Trade butterfly-knives for Adderall
And that's not all
Oh, there will be snacks there will
there will be snacks, there will be snacks.

Maybe tonight, when the president begins to speak, we should turn down the volume on him and listen to this song instead.

(09.23.08) Recommends:

2008-09-23T09:07:00.001-07:00

Remembering David Foster Wallace.

I didn't know Dave Wallace. I never attended a reading of his. I still haven't even gotten through Infinite Jest. But hearing about his death 11 days ago was like a punch in the gut. I've never before really experienced the sadness that I felt when I heard about his death, from somebody that I did not know. But for a few days the world seemed very heavy. I think Peter Sagal, the NPR personality, touched on why I felt such sadness, when he wrote:

one of the things DFW wrote about, pretty constantly, especially in his more informal commentary, was the experience of us all being alone in our heads, and desperately trying to break out of it. I remember reading one comment he made (wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for it) that the whole point of fiction, maybe writing in general, was to send a message from one isolated head to another, with the meaning: you are not as alone as it seems.

I spent those first few nights after hearing the news going through my bookshelves, reading short stories he had written, and interviews he had given, and lamenting that I once loaned away for life a book that included an introduction by a well-respected writer that was essentially just a comment on an interview he had once given (such was DFW's ability that other well-regarded writers were eager to get to write simply about his interviews).

Like I said, it's been 11 days now. And a sense of normalcy has returned, at least for me. But I won't soon stop reading, and responding to, his writing. So I thought today would be a good time to put up some of his work in this space, for my resource, and hopefully for yours, too.

The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub. (abridged version that he read on This American Life here)

Consider The Lobster.

Federer As Religious Experience.

(09.11.08) Recommends:

2008-09-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Overcast Days.

We don't know what this says about us, but we've always found grey days and rain calming. You don't get much of that here in Southern California. But we've got one of those days today, at least downtown. We feel soothed. It's gonna be a productive day.

Overcast days also recall to our mind the opening credits of the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart which is, without question, one of the finest opening scenes of any movie, ever.

(09.09.08) Recommends:

2008-09-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

Man vs. Nature: Before vs. After.

In the red corner we have the Mobil horse, an ExxonMobil brand.

In the blue corner we have a Skullphone mural adorning the Small Bills art space.

"Art is science made clear." Jean Cocteau.

(09.08.08) Recommends:

2008-09-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Signs of the Time.

It was another weekend of beautiful weather, so we woke up early and went for a walk. We noticed that, from certain vantage points, it appears that Hollywood High School is sponsored by TV Guide.

This, we figured, probably helps explains a lot. Such as, why there are very few bookstores in the area. We know of three: Book Soup and Borders, neither of which offers a very reasonable parking situation, and Counterpoint Record and Books which doesn't offer a very reasonable, you know, selection of books. As such, we usually just walk down to our neighborhood newsstand [as can be seen, the newstand is international and, thus, cosmopolitian, and therefore all watchers of television may infer that Rudy Giuliani does not approve.]

High-school-brought-to-you-by-television probably also helps to explain trends such as, people who live in an area known for lots of traffic and not lots of parking buying vehicles such as this:

People who buy Hummers are unquestionably amoung our easiest -- and most deserving -- citizens to mock, but even so, isn't there something terribly sad about that "For Sale" sign in the back of the window?

There are multiple ways out of our Hummer days, and Hollywood is embracing at least two of them. While we firmly adhere to the notion that art made with mission statements is not art, we nonetheless enjoyed coming upon this:

But street messages are a routine part of life here. We were a little bit more taken aback when we saw this:

Maybe as a result of the renewed energy debate that our country seems to be undertaking, we'll no longer have to rely on David Browne Berds to remind us what the real things look like.

A Note For Those Who Yearn To See More Wildlife in the City: for the next two weeks, you have a chance to see the City of Los Angeles put 100 goats to work downtown. We're completely serious about this. Read more here.

Of course, without TV sponsoring high school, how many of us would not know about Arby's? That would be an unequivocal disaster, for we all know that Arby's roast beef sandwhiches are, in fact, delicious.

(09.06.08) Recommends:

2008-09-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

The Coolest Street Sign in Los Angeles.

So we had a meeting this afternoon in Studio City. We pretty much don't know anything about Studio City, but we do know that from where we live we can get there by taking Laurel Canyon Blvd. And when we were headed South, headed home on that street, we came across the above street sign. It is so awesome, right? We're thinking that has to be a piece of street art. But who knows. Maybe it was a warning from the city: if you insist on taking these curves, while talking on your cell phone, as we know is your wont, eventually you will die.

If anybody has any info on this sign, please leave a comment or send us an email.

(09.04.08) Recommends:

2008-09-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

Favrd.

Favrd might be the greatest website ever. Seriously, go there now.

(09.02.08) Recommends:

2008-09-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

Scenes From a Long Weekend.

With the holiday on Monday, we had a chance to get out and do some exploring.

Traffic. Downtown.

Market. Echo Park.

Utility box. Echo Park.

Paint store. Echo Park.

The following picture nicely captures two truths about Los Angeles. One, LA has a reputation that its citizens are health- and image-obsessed. Whether there is truth in the sterotype, the fact is, there must be more donut stores in LA, by any measure you wish to use, than any place in the US. Probably you can't go more than 100 yards without seeing a donut store. Two, LA does have a staggering amount of diversity; it's really a wonderful thing. Off the top of our heads, we can think of Thai Town, Korea Town, Little Armenia, Historic Philipinotown, Little Tokyo, Chinatown. And those are just the ethnically named neighborhoods. But that doesn't mean the city is always harmonious and coming from Kansas, there's a kind of cognitive disonance when you witness racism here. In LA, which is less than 50% white, discreet ethnic groups throw blame at other discreet ethnic groups. There seems to be tension between Korean people and Black people, for instance. Other groups seem to have a problem with the increased influence of the Hispanic population. Etc, etc. On the other hand, racism in Kansas is more likely to manifest itself in some kind of abstract form: the place is 90% white, so somebody might carry around a notion about "colored people" or "immigrants" in general destroying the country, but in this world view Koreans, Blacks, and Hispanics are all the same and they're all the enemy. I guess it just proves a universal rule: with enough time on their hands, humans have the capacity to complain about anything and lay blame on anybody.

Cafe Was -- still can't figure out if the sign is clever or cheesy. Hollywood.

Qat, it's a Scrabble word you really need to know. Hollywood.

Stormwater ordianance sign. Hollywood.

Of course you would expect palm trees to line the boulavards in a neighborhood that calls itself Country Club Park.

Ice Fade is a pretty awesome name for a barber shop. Slauson Ave.

City bench.

Stencils. Hollywood.

There's something about the way "human" appears on this sign that mezmerizes us. Washington Blvd.

Utility pole art. Hollywood.

The Los Angeles City Council recently enacted a one year moratorium on opening fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles. The story got national coverage, including this NY Times piece in which Jonathan Gold notes that South Los Angeles is the home to the best barbeque in the city and wonders how the ban will effect on that culinary tradition. We thought of the article as we waited nearly 90 minutes for our order from Phillips on Crenshaw Blvd.

Doorway entrance art. Hollywood.

We should just mention now: we ate lots of barbque over the weekend.

You can't make it down Melrose without being inundated by MBW artwork. Some of it we like, some of it we think is overload. We like this one.

Car wash. Inglewood.

MBW stencil. Hollywood.

We love this sign/advertisement/artwork. Not sure if it should be interpreted to mean that the car lot caters to a religious clientelle, or the car lot is suggesting that you'll need to rely on some kind of religious miracle in order to prevent your purchase from being a lemon.

Building. Hollywood.

No, seriously: holidays are made for eating.

Less talk, more rock. LaBrea Ave.

It turns out that it's not just neighborhoods called Country Club Park that are lined with Palm trees. Miraculously, almost every major street has them. Mid City.

The truth about Hollywood (we report, you decide).

Evidence #1:

The original street artist?

Industrial building. Compton Ave.

School days. Slauson Ave.

Motel. LaBrea and Slauson.

Valentine to Los Angeles.

When in Rome.

Old economy.

Fruit cart. Echo Park.

Market. Beverly Blvd.

Political pundits keep saying that Labor Day is when the electorate begins paying attention to the general election season in earnest. If elections were won on window signs, this thing would be a blow out.

Water. Wilton Pl.

Palm trees, blue skies, donuts. We came. We saw. We conquered. Los Feliz.

The clouds rolled in as the hills ate the sun, and as quickly as it came, the long weekend faded away.

(09.01.08) Recommends:

2008-09-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

More Space Invaders.

The cool thing about street art is that once you understand what you're seeing, you start seeing it all over. The last time we checked in we blogged about Space Invader. And sure enough, we're starting to see these pieces everywhere we go.

First up, the Invaders at Wilcox and Hollywood Blvd.

Heading south, next are the Invaders at Gower and Melrose.

Finally, heading west, the gigantic Invader, currently mostly covered by the gaudy advertising from Black Jack at Martel and Melrose.

(08.29.08) Recommends:

2008-08-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

Space Invader.

Invader is a street artist who forms the classic arcade game character using mosaic tiles. The art is cool because it is simple and at first glance seems to completely fit in with the landscape. It is only upon closer inspection that you are left scratching your head as to why there is a video game icon in the middle of a building or city street.

He recently hit Los Angeles to contribute to an exhibition at the World of Wonder Gallery (6650 Hollywood Blvd), which is itself putting on a computer game-inspired art show. Here are some pics:

Learn more about Space Invader here.

(08.28.08) Recommends:

2008-08-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

Anticipation.

Man, oh, man. Barack Obama's acceptance speech tonight. I can't remember the last time I was this excited/nervous to hear, you know, a speech by a politician. I think the excitement first started building this morning, when I got into the office and fired up Bill Clinton's speech from last night (view it here). I was really saddened and disappointment by his behavior during the primary season, but last night I thought he really came through. Then, the excitement continued to build, as I came across this NY Times piece, which basically says that some Democrats are concerned that Barack, speaking in front of 75,000 tonight, will look too much like a rock star and not somebody with whom we can relate. Note: Democrats have lost the last two presidential elections and they should have won them both. Therefore: I am so over -- and I presume many of you are with me on this -- what Democratic strategists have to say. They should probably just shut up now and listen to Barack.

In closing, I have been listening to the following OK Go cover of The Zombies all morning, and imagine I'll listen to it all afternoon in anticipation of the big speech tonight. You should do the same.

When you're done listening to that, may I suggest that you mind an anniversary by listening to this? Barack's speech is anticipated, but my god, this thing. I still can't get through it without literally crying and shaking. But they are tears and shakes that are needed.

(08.27.08) Recommends:

2008-08-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

Cinema Tuesdays.

We briefly touched on this in yesterday's post, but wanted to wait until we had some more pictures before we went into fuller detail. Anyway. Cinema Tuesdays. It's put on by Flux. A little more info can be found here. It's a Tuesday movie screening. It's free and open to the public. All you have to do is RSVP ahead of time. Then you show up, they have a free Belvedere open bar, free finger food, music, usually people associated with the film on-hand to chat with the audience and, most impressively, countertops and countertops full of free candy.

Above all else, we are seekers of value, and we're pretty sure you'll be hard-pressed to find better movie-going value in Los Angeles, if not the whole country, than Cinema Tuesdays. Seriously, if you went to the ArcLight -- and we love going to the ArcLight -- and bought two movie tickets, two drinks from the bar, two bags of candy, and popcorn, it would be, what, probably $50-70? At Cinema Tuesdays? Like $4, to tip the open bar tender. Awesome.

Below, some pics.

Another really cool thing about Cinema Tuesdays is that, as mentioned in yesterday's post, it is housed in the Montalban Theater, which for the time being, has been handed over to a bunch of artists, so in the theater foyer there is a bunch of cool, random stuff to view. Our friend said -- and we agreed -- that it reminded her of the Ron Pippin show from last year.

Here is that cool Geoff McFetridge wall paper that lines the upstairs of the theater.

Here it is wearing its party pants.

This week's showing was of Assassination of a High School President, which is set to be released next March. The theme for the evening, fittingly, was prom. Hence the party look. Last week, the theme was Olympics. A slightly different vibe. But fun both times.

Brett Simon, director of the film. We didn't completely love the film, but as the credits rolled, our friend turned to us and said it was like an episode of My So-Called Life. This was a perfect description. It was like watching a season of My So-Called Life and somehow, that realization made us like the film more.

Of course, it wouldn't be a proper post without a random Obey sighting.

(08.26.08) Recommends:

2008-08-26T08:16:00.001-07:00

The Artwork of Geoff McFetridge.

McFetridge is an LA-based artist/graphic-designer. We first came across his work while checking out the Nike Sportwear installation store at the Montalban Theater. [1] He has wallpapered the upper floor of the theater in a print that resembles Where's Waldo? meets, say, Marcel Dzama. The cool thing is he has also put up the print on buildings around the theater.

Here's the view looking north from Selma and Vine. This is the building next to the theater:

Here's the building in three sections:

Here's the roof of the theater (unless you sneak on the roof, it's a hard shot to fully capture with a camera):

Here's another shot from Selma and Vine of the two buildings:

Perhaps the scaffolding hints at more art to come?

People and Places Mentioned in this Blog Post:
Geoff McFetridge
Website.
Blog.

Montalban Theater
1615 North Vine Street.
Website.
Cinema Tuesdays at the theater.

Marcel Dzama
Richard Heller Gallery.
Wiki.

Where's Waldo
Amazon.

---
[1]Have you heard about this place? It's a retail shop, but it'll only be
around for three months. It's hard to describe all the cool things going on inside -- a combination ofsportsware and art and cinema and local outreach. If you're in the area, you're strongly recommended to stop in.

(08.21.08) Recommends:

2008-08-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

Scenes From Opening Night of the Art Show at Small Bills.

Last night was the opening of a showing at Small Bills (8200 1/2 W. 3rd Street; website here). We showed up to check out some art, buy some prints, listen to some music, and of course, drink some free Colt 45.

Here's a print featuring the artists who contribute to the show.

The space is small, but is painted with these awesome fossilized griffin-looking things.

Here's some art. (Left: Skullphone; Right: Shepard Fairey).

More Shepard Fairey.

We weren't kidding.

Years after high school and the cool kids still just wanna hang out in parking lots.

(08.19.08) Recommends:

2008-08-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

The Hungry Cat.
1535 Vine St.

One of the biggest things that we miss about living in the Bay Area are lazy weekend afternoons hanging out in Tomales Bay eating oysters, drinking white wine, and eating cheese from Cow Girl Creamery.

We were not prepared for the dearth of oyster eating options in Los Angeles, but luckily one of the best places for oysters in LA is near us: The Hungry Cat.

We spent a recent, beautiful, lazy Hollywood weekend trying to recreate our Northern California oyster days.

The Hungry Cat is also known for its interesting drink list.

We started with an Echo Park Cocktail. The Great Dane with whom we were eating had a Mint Julep. [Note: training a dog to slurp alcohol is much easier than potty training a dog. Especially after the dog has been slupring alcohol all afternoon.]

After our stomachs were sufficiently greased up we moved on to the main attraction.

This picture pretty much speaks for itself.

More Hungry Cat Info:
Website.
Yelp.

(08.18.08) Recommends:

2008-08-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

One Final Obey Blast (For Now At Least).

So we've been on a Shepard Fairey posting kick lately, and we thought we'd just clear our camera of all Obey-related pics today. So join us on a tour of Los Angeles, Obey-style.

First up, is Studio Number One, his studios and Obey HQ, located at 1331 W. Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park.

Here's a shot of people lined up on a recent Saturday morning waiting for the release of a new print.

This is the East side view of the studio.

Heading West on Sunset, next up is the Brooklyn Projects skate shop located at 2125 W. Sunset Blvd..

The shop features an entire Obey wall.

Continuing a bit west on Sunset is this Obey facade.

Making your way into Hollywood you'll find this Shepard Fairey Kobe Bryant piece, commissioned by Upper Deck.

Looping back around, you will find tucked away in a makeshift alley on Melrose and Hobart these flower guns.

Finally, the intersection of Stadium Way and Riverside Blvd. (Riverside Blvd is a new discovery for us; we imagine we'll spend a lot more time exploring this street in the near future.). This first print says: "World Police State Champs, More Militerry, Less Skools."

The other side of the utility box is this war child:

(08.16.08) Recommends:

2008-08-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

Obey the Night.

The view from last night's walk from Blue Palms Brewhouse (verdict: recommended) to our place in Beachwood Canyon.

(08.15.08) Recommends:

2008-08-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

Bansky.

So today we're gonna continue on our art kick. Our friend Fellow Blogger -- we always just bold her name rather than link to her as she refuses to allow us to ever link to her blog because she's obsessed with "anonymity" and insists that she will be "fired" [note: it's doubtful whether she's even employed] by the mere act of our linking to her [aside: remember when people used to call links hyperlinks? Also: Hypercolor. People used to wear that. We submit that hyperlinks and hypercolor need to make a comeback] -- introduced us to the artwork of Banksy shortly after we relocated to Los Angeles [and probably after a night of us talking her ear off about our love of Shepard Fairey's work].

This introduction was a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing because his art is pretty and funny and insightful and just shows up on walls out of nowhere with no prior warning making it an all-around cool and necessary thing.

But the intro was a bad thing, too, because as it is we're pretty suspect at driving, and now when we're driving, our eyes are constantly wandering off the road, looking for Banksy pieces, rather than concentrating on not smacking into the person in front of us.

Here are four pieces we've been able to find.

Banksy Girl. This one is found at the Valero gas station at the corner of La Brea and Beverly.

Banksy Gardener. Same location as above.

Banksy Caveman. This one is found by the New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd.

Bansky Rat. This one is on Melrose, just West of Orange Dr. This is our favorite piece we've spotted thus far.

To give you a sense of it's size, here's a picture from the north side of Melrose. The rat's gotta be 10 feet tall.

If you know the locations of any other LA Banksy pieces, please write in to let us know!

(08.14.08) Recommends:

2008-08-14T08:26:00.001-07:00

Obey The Life Cycle.

We're going back to the Obey theme today (More ObeyLA: here, here, here, here; ObeySF: here) to mourn the passing of an old Obey standby. We work downtown and heading West on Wilshire at Virgil we always liked passing this Misfits slash Ramones slash Andre the Giant hybrid piece:

Somebody obviously did not like it as much as we did; we did a double-take when we were in the area yesterday and saw this, which we'll call a Nobey:

Curiously, in its stead, rising up like a mutant Phoenix, there is now this:

What is this? A gang sign? A bat with the shakes? Whatever it is, we couldn't help but wonder if, once a piece by someobody with the credibility of Shepard Fairey is removed from an area, less talented people come in and put up their street jibberish.

The idea might seem like a stretch until you read this LA Times article, also from yesterday, coincidentally -- or not, perhaps. Seems the proprietors of a family-owned store became so fed up with being hit with lazy graffiti that they payed a street-artist to put up a mural (the difference between "street art" and "murals" and "graffiti" and "tagging" and, um, "advertising" is a topic we will eventually photoblog). The lazy graffiti stopped and the consensus was that the taggers had respect for the muralist and left the space alone. Until the city stepped in, made the family paint over the mural at the behest of a concerned citizen, only to watch the lazy graffiti come back worse than ever.

So, in conclusion:
Street art: smart design :: graffiti: intelligent design.

(08.13.08) Recommends:

2008-08-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

Trending Topics on Twitter Search.

So, some background. There used to be a company called Summize.
It was a search engine for Twitter. Then it was purchased by Twitter. The search engine can now be found here.

It has a nifty feature called Trending Topics. Pretty self explanatory -- presents words that are appearing in lots of Twitters (or "tweets," a word we cannot actually bring ourselves to use). This afternoon we noticed the phrase Arkansas Democrat. We knew this had nothing to do with Barack Obama's VP selection because we had not received an email (we presume you, like us, have signed up for the notification). Curious, then, as to why an Arkansas Democrat was in the news, we clicked on the link. To discover that the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party had been killed. We quickly went to the NY Times online. No news. Like with the LA earthquake, Twitter again trumped the wires. We suspect we'll see more and more of this.

We're very excited with the prospect of being able to mine the vast amount of underlying Twitter data. The future exists somewhere in them there hills.

(08.12.08) Recommends:

2008-08-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Strawberry Shortcake.

We have a friend who, for reasons that are not altogether clear, recently came into possession of bags and bags of strawberries -- we're not kidding here, she had probably twenty pounds of strawberries. We were summoned, both to try to make sense of the rather strange acquisition and to try to figure out what do with the things before they started to spoil.

The Strategy:

Take these:

and using this (recipe may be found here):

turn them into that:

The Process:

There are three main steps: (1) make the strawberry bread; (2) macerate strawberries; (3) make whipped cream.

Step One: Making strawberry bread.

First you must cut up a bunch of the strawberries. Please take note: of the black nail polish. We're told this is necessary to create a sufficient contrast between finger- and fruit-color. Otherwise, one might cut one's finger off. That, or our friend is an emo-goth-strawberry lover. Regardless. The point is that knives are involved. So be careful. (Especially if you're emo-goth; we hear those people are always trying to cut their wrists).

Next you need to fill up a blender with a quart of strawberries. Usually you are not good with things such as converting quarts into ounces. But luckily you were educated at a gigantic state university, at which you spent an inordinate amount of time drinking quarts of Miller High Life (champagne of beer). You recall that the bottles were 32oz. You recall that 32oz equals two pints. You learned other things during your time at university. You just can't recall much of it now.

Strawberries in a blender are like those mortgage-backed securities you thought we gonna be your ticket outta blogspot. Here today:

Gone tomorrow.

Next, crank up Def Leppard. And pour some sugar on me.

Tim Gunn once said that, included among the reasons he loves working with Heidi Klum is that "even her knuckles are gorgeous." (No really, he said this). So, if you're an aspiring knuckle model/german supermodel/reality television series judge, this next step in the process will appeal to you:

Whip the yellow stuff (it's funnier if you're Asian while doing this)

Then whip the red stuff (it's funnier if you're Communist while doing this; it's highlarious if you're, say, a North Korean while doing both steps.)

Then put your concoction in the oven. Wait a bit. And out comes this:

Step Two:Macerate the strawberries.

We have never been much for strawberries -- something about the taste of those little seeds freaks us out. We've also never been much of a cooker. Luckily, both of these problems may be overcome through copious amounts of sugar and liqueur.

Strangely, the scent of orange peel also makes strawberries quite tasty.

Next, carve up your strawberry bread.

And fill it with strawberries.

Then, put the lid back on.

Step Three: Whip the cream.

Obviously, this blog post has been filled with juvenile humor (one of the nine habits of highly successful people). But this next part is not us trying to be funny. The recipe actually charges you to "whip the cream until stiff peaks start to form." Kinda pervy. But everybody loves playing with hand blenders.

Smother the top with your delicious homemade whipped cream.

And add your delicious orange- and booze-infused strawberries.

In Conclusion:

A tasy summer treat that even a non-strawberry lover will enjoy.

(08.11.08) Recommends:

2008-08-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

Some Updates.

1. Matthew wrote in to update us on the missing song titles from our Horse Feathers post. The post now has the updated titles.

2. The other day we had this to Twitter. We went back to the scene of the crime when it was more light out and discovered that it's actually an MBW. But it's very Banksyesque. Here's a look:

3. Re Sunday's Obey post. This is less an update than a call for help. What we really want to be able to do is have the big picture of the mural, and then be able to click on each piece of the mural to have that individual piece pop up. We swear we've seen this done in Flickr but cannot figure out how to do it. Is this something that requires Photoshop? If anybody can help us out with this drop us a comment/email.

(08.10.08) Recommends:

2008-08-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

Obey Venice.

We're continuing with the Obey theme today. So we recently went exploring, westside-style, with a friend, and while there insisted on stopping by The Garter so we could peep a new Shepard Fairey mural-collage-thingy. His collages are usually our favorites, since there's so much going on and so much to look at, yet somehow everything comes together as one unified piece. It's awesome, and if you ever find yourself on Lincoln Blvd. do yourself a favor and check it out.

(08.06.08) Recommends:

2008-08-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

Obey Larchmont Blvd.

We were so hungry while driving home yesterday that we made an impromptu stop into a local Mexican restaurant at the intersection of Melrose Ave. and Larchmont Blvd. for a quick fix of chips and gauc. As we were leaving, spotted: this new Shepard Fairey paster.

(08.05.08) Recommends:

2008-08-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.

Last night Conor Oberst put on a free in-store performance at the Amoeba Records in Hollywood in conjunction with today's release of his new solo album. [The album can be streamed here.]
There was a huge and hugely appreciative crowd on hand -- we got their half-hour before the start time and and place was already packed -- and the band did a high energy run through the songs on the new album. This was one of the first shows for the new backing band, but they sound like they've been playing together for years, so this tour is certain to be very entertaining. For those in LA, the band puts on a sold out show this evening at the Troubadour and then is back in September for two nights at the Music Box.

We recorded some video of the show. Our standard video caveat applies -- the video is not really good -- and now we have an additional caveat: the band nearly blew the roof off Amoeba with its energy and the sound pretty much overwhelmed our modest little camera. Luckily the show was webcast via Amoeba's website, so once the webcast is archived we'll replace these videos with the cleaner, crisper webcast feed.

I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital)

Sausalito

(08.04.08) Recommends:

2008-08-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

An Evening of Horse Feathers.

Horse Feathers are a devastating two-piece band out of Portland, Ore. We were introduced to their music two-years ago next month by an impeccably-eared friend. We first blogged about them here.
So it was a foregone conclusion that, two years later while again living in the same city with our music discoverer friend, when Horse Feathers played the Troubadour we'd be in the crowd.

We've been listening to this band for two solid years, and until Saturday night had no idea that the violinist bares a striking resemblance -- at least in the dark from the balcony of the Troubadour -- to Harry Potter.

We recently began playing around with the video recorder function on our camera. So we tried to shoot some video of the show. The picture is obviously no good here, but the audio turned out decent. We'd like to figure out a way to turn these files into just sound files, but until then we present them below (we're not sure the name of the last two songs -- can anybody help? UPDATE:song titles have been corrected). We've been listening to them as background music since yesterday. We really love this band. They have a new record coming out next month and we could not be more excited for it.

Finch on Saturday

Walking & Running

Albina

Rude to Rile

(08.01.08) Recommends:

2008-08-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Admitting That Driving In Los Angeles, Though We're Convinced It's Giving Us Ulcers, Still Occassionally Makes Us Happy.

Those who do not live or spend a significant amount of time in Hollywood probably think of it as a very glitzy and glamorous place. And there are certainly places in Hollywood -- e.g., the area around Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave. -- that give off what one might presume to be the Hollywood Feel (even though we imagine when people think they're thinking of Hollywood they're probably actually thinking of either Beverly Hills or the Sunset Strip in the incorporated city of West Hollywood, neither of which are Hollywood The District). So a dirty local secret is that Hollywood - the Physical District as opposed to Hollywood - the Idea is, not necessarily dirty, but very utilitarian, with lots of non-descript big box buildings that house the sets and stages that create the glitzy and glamorous images. Hollywood is where the sausage is made and we're told from the time we're Very Young that one need not see where the sausage is made.

The point of this story is that often times we find ourselves driving around Hollywood, in the shadows of cavernous yet unmarked buildings and wondering what is going on inside. And then other times we find ourselves driving around Hollywood, stopped by a red light at the intersection of Bronson Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. only to turn our heads to see these gigantic tiki head statues. There's usually about a dozen of them. Just lined up neatly along the side of the road. As if it's completely normal to see gigantic tiki heads on the way to work. "There's the neighborhood coffee shop, newsstand, tiki head statues." With little tiki head statue seat belts (which are supposed to defy inertia but we have our doubts).

We see these once or twice a week. Whenever we see them we think of the episodes of the Brady Bunch when the family goes to Hawaii. For some reason we also always think of the Price is Right. But mostly they just always cause us to giggle -- partly because they're gigantic and funny looking, partly because it reminds us that we're just country folk from Kansas now living among tiki-heads and weirdos in Hollywood.

(07.31.08) Recommends:

2008-07-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

Starting Your Day With a Breakfast Burrito.

We regularly sustain oursevles throughout the day on nothing but nuts and Diet Dr. Pepper. We are also regularly early risers, but today woke up at an hour that was uncharacteristically early even for us -- we're noticing a case of Wednesday-onset insomnia and we think it's our immune system not being able to handle what has heretofore been a disappointing season of Project Runway -- so while driving around aimlessly before work (read: while sitting in traffic because there is traffic regardless of the time or day around these parts), we decided to finally stop in and give D/Los Burritos (not sure which one it actually is) a try, breakfast burrito style.

Well, it was an unmitigated success. We walked out of there with a bounce in our step ready to tackle another day in the world. It's gonna be a good Thursday. And we can't wait until the next case of Wednesday-onset insomnia.

(07.29.08) Recommends:

2008-07-29T12:33:00.001-07:00

5.8 Reasons Why It's Acceptable To Drink A Beer Over Lunch Today.

More here about the earthquake that shook our office today in downtown los angeles.

UPDATE: The earthquake was lowered to 5.4. We are more than willing to give our extra 0.4 worth of beer to this person.

(07.28.08) Recommends:

2008-07-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

Quite The Sales Plug.

For a few months now, we've been kicking around the idea of purchasing a scooter. Large parts of LA are not covered by the metro line, large parts are not pedesterian-friendly, and oddly, at the same time, large parts aren't really car-friendly, either: the streets are too narrow; the stop lights rarely seem to be synched up; there are rarely turn signals, resulting in at least four drivers attempting to turn on every yellow/red light, at least two of whom with not use their turn signal; the main requirement to be a driver of a city bus is to be completely unreasonable; gas is $4.50 per gallon and on and on and on. As a result: we've become very interested in the idea of buying a scooter.

So on Friday we noticed this article in the Boston Globe for the Vectrix scooter. The numbers are insane. It's electric so it gives off zero emissions. It costs one cent per mile to run the thing. It gets the equivalent of 357 miles per gallon. The California Air Resource board will subsidize $1,500 of the purchase. Apparently the thing can even go on the highway.

Since we've read the article, all we notice are scooters around us; we've become like those women, desparate to become mothers, who break into tears at the sight of a baby. Next up in the due diligence process is learning about the Vespa.

Update: The Vespa LX. A very handsome looking scooter, yeah?

(07.25.08) Recommends:

2008-07-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

A Blogger in the White House.

So yesterday we ranted about the old guard media. While we were hammering out that post, Barack Obama was, as you know, giving a speech in Berlin. There was a lot in there that we've heard before: skinny kid, funny name, goat herders, army cooks, coming to america, Kansas, Kenya, etc.

But near the end he slipped something new in there:

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here...Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe?

There's a blogger in his campaign who has his ear. And that's a very good sign. It also makes sense. Obama understands the power of networks. He started off as a community organizer. During the primary he leveraged the internet to reinvent campaign fianance (click on this very cool pdf for a graphical depiction of the reinvention). He knows that the power of this country lies in its citizens. As more and more of those citizens share their wisdom and talent with others through tools like blogging software, sources like CNN will be forced to change or die. Having a president with blogger advisors will not change the health care system or cure the economy or the environment. But we're convinced that having a strong blogging culture is a step in the right direction.

(07.24.08) Recommends:

2008-07-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Understanding that if CNN Really Is The Most Trusted Name in News Then We Are All Really, Really Fucked.

So, we have this friend, Fellow Blogger. She's among the smartest people we know. Both book smart and current event smart and generally just smart at life. So once a week or so, she'll send us a ridiculous headline from CNN.com. A common example is something like "54% of Americans think we may be headed toward a recession." Or "George Bush doesn't think we are headed for a recession." Everytime they are Very Serious headlines from a Very Serious news source. And everytime they are completely and utterly useless.

We never check CNN.com unless we get these articles, but we always sort of figured Fellow Blogger was just cherry picking the worst articles.Umm , we now seriously doubt this. For this morning, we casually checked out CNN.com. And this is what greeted us (click for larger image):

Yikes. Where do we even start with this? First of all, the fact that there are Black people in America? Is this really a Live! Developing! Story! And not just that but do we really need Your! Reaction! to the fact that there are Black people in America? I mean, is this Turn Back The Clock To The 1800s Day on the Internet? Moving on to Latest! News! check out those stories.

Is marriage only for white people!
Black people not playing football!
Mississippi closed for the day!
Kids playing with sawdust and paper!
Helping whales help themselves!
Video sluts pissed off that people think they're slutty!
Kid Rock! At the Waffle House!
All this, plus super heroes and Salman Rushdie!

Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Okay, my head just split in two; no more, please!

I guess this should not be too surprising. CNN, the television station, is pretty absurd. There's Lou Dobbs, a border-line xenophobe. Larry King, a border-line robot. Anderson Cooper, who used to be the host of reality game show The Mole, and who often produces Hard! Hitting! Journalism! a representative example of which is how the fact that prostitution is legal in parts of Mexico is evidence of international sex-trafficking. And, lest we forget, there's Wolf Blitzer. Who can forget Wolf Blitzer, just last week, on the Situation! Room! running around, mouth agape, eyes bulging out of head, convinced that No American could possibly understand that the New Yorker is a liberal magazine known for producing satirical cartoons (the same Americans who, before this morning, were unaware of the existance of Black Americans).

So here's what we're thinking about this morning: As newspapers continue with massive lay-offs and the unending tide continues toward the internet and 24-hour cable television for news, should we be concerned that CNN.com, presumably one of the most trafficed web properties, offers up almost nothing but steaming piles of horse shit?

We, unlike Wolf Blitzer, believe that the vast and overwhelming majority of reasonable Americans understand that the New Yorker is liberal and the cover was satire. To that end, we are hopeful that the vast and overwhelming majority of reasonable Americans understand that CNN is completely full of shit and offers, perhaps, 5% news and 95% foaming at the mouth nonsense.

Two questions we have this morning. Is this a reasonable hope? And, even if it is a reasonable hope, what pressures, if any, does the success of CNN.com (and CNN) put on sources who actually are trying to enlighten, educate, edify our society?

(07.23.08) Recommends:

2008-07-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Track "Ten Dead Dogs" from Wild Sweet Orange's "We Have Cause To Be Uneasy" (Canvasback Music, forthcoming, July 29, 2008).

As we mentioned in our last update, we haven't been blogging here lately as much as usual, as we've been playing around lots on Twitter and we've been fumbling around on Tumblr -- one anonymous tumblr that if you're savvy enough and/or have too much time on your hands you can find by scrubbing this blog, and another double secret Tumblr that we can tell you right now you'll never, ever discover, so don't even bother asking.

In addition, we've been listening almost exclusively to this WSO track, Ten Dead Dogs. We first saw WSO back in March -- my goodness, has it really been over four months since that show?? -- and about a month ago their full-length debut showed up in our mail boxes.

Let's back up though. When we say we've been listening almost exclusively to this track, we actually mean we've been listening almost exclusively to the first forty-five seconds of this track. As we Twittered earlier, the first :45 might be our favorite music released this year. Not an understatement: on the rare occasions in which we drive to work, our commute takes up to forty five minutes, which means we regularly listen to this part of the song 60 times in a row. But it's not just us who are crazy: we introduced this song to Law School Friend -- one of the few humans whose picture has ever appeared on the blog here, here, here -- during her ridiculous July 4th cookout. Last weekend, when we hung out with her again, she informed us that she had not been able to stop listening to the song. We may or may not be exaggerating when she said she listened to it 45 times consecutively.

While that may sound quaintly amateurish compared to our devotion, it is still a sign, we think, that this song is like E. Coli: some people will come in contact with it and won't notice anything every happened; others will have their bodies completely overtaken for 5-7 days before returning to a normal state; large numbers will die. Okay, probably this song won't kill you, but it will vanquish any chances you have of being productive, because you'll find yourself having to stop to hit the "back" button to start the song over. You'll do this repeatedly -- so you can try to copy his enunciation on "apartment," so you can try to hit the high note on "omen," so you can do that little "buh da doom" part, so you try to match his voice on "I watched the sky turn from blue to black to red and yellow, too," they'll be others, trust us -- until you notice that it's an hour later and all you have to show for it is the sad realization that, despite your best protestations, it probably wasn't lack of time committment to singing in the shower that prevented you from being a rock star.

Okay. Enough talking. On to the music, maestro.

Wild Sweet Orange -- Ten Dead Dogs -- mp3.

(07.16.08) Recommends:

2008-07-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

Not Choosing the 'Format' Option on Your Camera.

Hitting format, it turns out, formats the camera's memory stick. Formatting the camera's memory stick, it turns out, erases everything on the memory stick. See, it's technology. It's all so obvious.

Anyway. In addition to playing around elsewhere in the blogospohere lately, we've also been silent around these parts because everything we heretofore were going to post now no longer exists. Enter: slow, pained, expression. So, what you would have seen, had we not been so Webst2.0pid.

1. A self created photo-tour of the street art of LaBrea Avenue, including all your street art faves -- Shepard Fairey! Banksy! MBW! The band Slayer! (the effing band Slayer!! Not even kidding about that one. Sigh)

2. A video of Albert Hammond Jr. + band performing at Spaceland.

3. Sheaprd Fairey's new Kobe Bryant pieces at Hollywood/Gower.

4. A Fourth of July photo-blogged cookout.

5. A photo-blogging adventure of Mazinga-Z,host of the finest happy hour in Korea Town, if not all of Los Angeles. This place is festooned with comic book wallpaper and robots and full of impossibly beautiful Asian women, at least three of whom will be smoking cigarettes. Indoors. And in blatant contravention of all California laws. Because Mazinga-Z is, apparently, its own sovereign Asian territory.

6. Pictures of Stevie Wonder at the Hollywood Bowl. (doh! doh! doh!)

7. And about 80 other pictures about which I either cannot remember or am repressing from memory.

Man, man, man. Losing lots of pictures, it turns out, is crappy.

(07.14.08) Recommends:

2008-07-14T16:29:00.000-07:00

Two New Additions to the Blog.

For the past week or so we've been playing around in other areas of the blogosphere. The focus of this blog has always been a bit random, but there seems to be a directional shift in focus over the past several months. We've been wondering if there might be more cohesion to the blog by segregating certain blog topics (e.g., quick, straight-up music recommendations vs. photo-blogging adventures vs. etc) among various blog tools (music blasts to twitter vs. photo-blogging to blogger vs. somehow incorporating tumblr and/or flickr). We're still batting around ideas in our head, and welcome any advice, design or otherwise. Two additions to the blog that we'll quickly mention:

1. First. Twitter at the upper right hand column. As mentioned above, we may use this for short music blasts or for other things too short for a full-length post.

2. Second. You'll notice a new tag, "90068." This tag corresponds to our zip code, and we've added it so our feed will be picked up by outside.in so we can leverage their new GeoToolkit service. Go here for more info on outside.in. We recommend all fellow bloggers who read us to start geo-tagging as well.

(07.03.08) Recommends:

2008-07-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

Airborne Toxic Event's video for the acoustic version of "Moving On".

Okay, that title was a bit of a mouthful. But regardless. This is probably the coolest music video we've seen since that awesome video of Arcade Fire playing in an elevator (here).

Also: it's brining back memories of the Smashing Pumpkins video for 1979. (here)

Furthermore: it reminds us of our own concert photography, which is to say it's a bit too dark to see clearly, but you're convinced that something awesome is going on in the picture.

---

[link via the essential radiofree silverlake]

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more airborne toxic event:
here.
here.
here.

(07.01.08) Recommends:

2008-07-01T07:58:00.001-07:00

Thoughts I Have Never Had.

I should fill my car with gas because burning gasoline makes everything cleaner.

Apparently, however, some people do think this, as evidenced by this incredible sign spotted this morning on Beverly Blvd. just west of downtown.

Man, we're really missing George Carlin this morning.

(06.30.08) Recommends:

2008-06-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

Life Is Beautiful, An Exhibition of the Art of Thierry Guetta aka Mr. Brainwash aka MBW.

From what we understand, MBW is a French filmmaker who was working on a documentary film on street art. At some point he abandoned the project, or put it on hold, and tried his hand at creating "street art" himself. This is his first exhibition.

We enjoyed this exhibition; in fact, we have now seen it on multiple occasions (including during the ridiculously entertaining opening night reception/party). We think everybody in LA who is interested in street art or indie art or modern art would get something from checking out the exhibition. If nothing else, one walks away impressed with the sheer size of it: the space is an old CBS television studio, and both levels of the studio, as well as a substantial court yard, are filled to the brim with art.

We were certainly impressed -- blown away, frankly -- at the ambitiousness of the exhibition. But we cannot decide whether MBW's work, as individual pieces, is compelling, or if the work becomes compelling when displayed on such a large scale. We are not art critics by training (we're not even amateur art critics), but we are going to attempt to blog through this question regardless.

[Note: If you are not interested in reading a self-indulgent, rambling, uncalled for stab at art criticism -- and we suspect this is the majority of you -- scroll down below. There are pictures! You've been warned.]

In the press reports on MBW, comparisons to Banksy and Shepard Fairey are often bandied about. We are only familiar with Banksy's stencil work, and since we didn't really notice any stencils in the show, we don't really see the comparison.

We get the Shepard Fairey comparison to a limited extent. Both artists are into reinterpreting iconic figures. Both obviously bring a profoundly artistic vision and bent to their work. But we are also struck by a difference. Shepard Fairey is, above all else, a designer. His work is always intricately crafted and aesthetically pleasing; his pieces are simply a pleasure to look at. We imagine you could hang one of his pieces in your house -- even one of, say, a gigantic Andre the Giant head -- and the lettering and the bordering and the overall look of the piece would be such that when a guest noticed it hanging, the first reaction wouldn't be, "oh, you must be an Andre the Giant fan," but rather, "oh, that print is pretty to look at; it's so cool."

MBW, as we've mentioned, is a filmmaker. So he still brings that creative eye that sets him apart from the non-creatively inclined. But, on the whole, we do not find his individual pieces nearly as compelling as, say, Shepard Fairey (please understand that we understand that such comparison adds no value to any conversation; it's like saying "I don't find the Strokes nearly as compelling as the Beatles." (yes we like both the Strokes and the Beatles, no, we're not saying Shepard Fairey is the Beatles or MBW is the Strokes; it's why we encouraged you to skip this entire section).

Perhaps the print that people will eventually most associated MBW with, is a re-interpretation of Andy Warhol's classic series of Marilyn Monroe. MBW keeps the hair and general face structure, but adds the faces of random members of pop culture: Spock, Larry King, Michael Jackson, even a trio of John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama (which can be seen on a billboard at Sunset and Gower, in the building that houses the exhibition).

But, as opposed to, say, a single Obey Giant print, each single MBW Marilyn Monroe spin-off seems a bit of a novelty. Like, we can imagine them being sold at one of those touristy shops that sell t-shirts of varying degrees of offensiveness (you know the kind of t-shirt shops we're talking about, right? The t-shirts usually have references to sexual proclivity or drunkenness or drugs; there's almost always an entire Bob Marley section; the rage at these shops during the primary season was an Obama/Clinton shirt adorned with the slogan "bros before hos" etc. etc.). And we imagine if you hung a single one of these in your house, a guest's first reaction would more likely to be "oh, you must really like [fill-in-the-name-of-the-person-substituted-for-Marilyn Monroe]!" or "oh, you must have a wacky sense of humor!" rather than "oh, that's really pretty!"

But somehow, when there's an entire hallway filled with these Marilyn Monroe spin-offs, it works. It's like this with a lot of the exhibition. The pieces are a bit repetitive, but there's something about the mass scale that creates a pleasant effect that we're not sure individual pieces could muster.

So we imagine this will be the primary question that comes out of the exhibition: It works en masse, but can it work on an individual scale?

[Note II: this ends the gratuitous (& quasi & pseudo & uncalled for) art criticism.]

One piece that absolutely floored us was the below Run DMC piece. When we first walked into the room, we thought it was simply a painting of Run DMC, which would fit into the "random cultural icon" motif. We chuckled. But then we moved closer to the painting. Only to realize that it was not a painting. But rather, was made of broken chunks of vinyl records. We stood in front of it, mouths agape, for several minutes. We would move closer, then further away from it. Trying to figure out how it works. We're still not sure how MBW pulled this off, but it's instantly become one of our favorite pieces of art.

Ultimately, say what you will about this exhibition and MBW. But it's pretty hard to disagree with the following:

---
For more information on exhibition dates and hours:
Life Is Beautiful website.

(06.29.08) Recommends:

2008-06-29T13:28:00.001-07:00

The Petrojvic Blasting Co.

We came across this band in the very best manner one can possibly come across a band. We were out on an early Friday evening, walking around our neighborhood, taking photographs (and taking advantage of another rare warm Los Angeles evening), after celebrating happy hour with a friend. All of a sudden, we hear the distant sound of accordion. So we kick around a few buildings, walking up stairs and peeking around corners until we stumble into the back patio of something called Crane's Hollywood Tavern, where we witnessed players of fiddles, accordions, and the occasional and sundry brass insrument entertaining a crowd gathered for something called The Honeybee Lounge, which is some kind of party that outfits guests with one dollar glasses of beer. No joke, that. It was one of those completely lovely moments destined from birth to be a Friday Evening. Perfection very nearly distilled.

The band is made of two brothers. They appear to be in some sort of negotiations to acquire the fiddle player. We think the fiddle player should acquiesce. Or the brothers should make him an offer he can't refuse. WWTGD? [1] Because this threesome is killer. Yes, we just said killer.

Unfortunately for us, we could only stick around for about an hour. Also unfortunate for us, we know nothing more about this band than what we've gleaned from the band's cryptic website, which is to say, we really don't know much at all. (In defense, we're not sure the website is actually "the band's website"). But we are very hopeful that we'll see these guys playing around town again soon. Yesterday we posted some audio of the show that we recorded. Check it out.

Finally: If anybody reading this knows more about the band, please write in and give us the low-down!

---
[1] Make it work, obvs.

(06.28.08) Recommends:

2008-06-28T08:17:00.001-07:00

An Experiment with Audio Blogging.

This is a test. If the sound quality is aggressively bad -- um, yeah, we already know the video is aggressively bad -- we'll probably kill the post, or at least update with regular pics and commentary on this band. But for now, we want to see how this turns out.

(06.27.08) Recommends:

2008-06-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

American Teen.

On Wednesday, we were invited out to see the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary film American Teen, as part of the Los Angeles Film Festival.

A couple notes to set the scene before we discuss the film.

First, as we've mentioned before, as a general rule we've never really been film buffs. But a carve out to this is documentary films. We're more likely to go see a documentary that generates lots of buzz than any other genre of film.

Second, this might be a very obvious point, but Los Angeles knows how to do film festivals. The screening was held at the Ford Ampitheater, nestled in the Hollywood Hills. It's like a miniature Greek Theater (blogged about here). Here's the view as we first entered:

LA is usually stunningly beautiful during the day, but then the temperature drops precipitously at night. However, one of the positive residual effects of the recent LA Heat Wave has been warm summer nights. So the scenery and weather left a big impression for the festival to fill.

Luckily, the fest was up to the task. First, before the screening, Sunny Day Sets Fire (blogged about here and here) performed a set. They have a song that appears in the film. This is probably the biggest crowd they've ever played in front of. They really took advantage of the setting.

Second, they had lots for people to eat and drink. Despite this, we ran into a very talented photographer who bought us a beer. The point of all of this is to say that the crowd was in a very jovial mood.

Finally, and the point of this post, the movie was amazing.

---

The film follows the lives of several high school seniors in Warsaw, Ind.

This sentence, alone, will probably be the root of all criticisms you will read about the film.

First, it will lead to uncontrollable preconceived notions/mental protests from anybody who was college-aged or younger starting in roughly 1992. Will the film, these people will wonder, actually capture the lives of these students, or will the students, trained by years of Real World begets Road Rules begets Survivor begets Laguna Beach begets The Hills and friendster begets myspace begets facebook begets blogger ubiquity use the cameras to push their agendas just like Puck and Pedro used the cameras to promote the rights of booger eaters and AIDS sufferers, respectively, during Real World San Francisco?

This concern, while never completely leaving our mind, was not much of a concern in the end, owing primarily to the fact that Nanette Burstein proves to be an incredibly thoughtful, humane, non-judgmental, talented filmmaker.

The second criticism we anticipate is that the film merely highlights the uselessness and frivolity of the modern American public high school system and the modern American teen; that a generation of complacent kids will cause America to lag behind in the global economic race for ... well, whatever it is, exactly, that we're globally and economically racing for. This, like the Real World Question, we ultimately dismiss because all of the students featured in fact display big ambitions. The ends of the ambitions differ -- getting to college, getting to a college of a particular prestige, getting to a college of a particular geography, becoming less of a nerd and feeling like you fit in, whatever -- but each student shares an equal vigor in reaching those ends.

We don't want to offer too many spoilers to the film; the film is a joy and people should experience it with virgin eyes. So we'll just say that it runs the gamut of emotions:

At least three times we began crying (including near the end when we had to do that guy thing of quickly, but discreetly, rubbing our eyes in an attempt to dry them before the lights came up -- "we're cool, we're cool, good movie, should we head out now, wanna grab another beer, we're cool, really, stop looking at us," etc. etc.).

At least a half dozen times we burst into laughter, literal bursts such that we had to check the person sitting in front of us to see if we had spit on them.

We cringed out of embarrassment at the behavior of both parent and child.

We sighed heavily out of righteous indignation at the obnoxiousness of both parent and child.

Our hearts burst with optimism for the future when we saw a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The crowd on Wednesday -- the "jaded hollywood set" -- was as animated as any movie crowd we've ever experienced. And this movie will certainly play well in the Midwest -- it's filmed there, and as midwesterns we saw a lot of our high school selves in the picture. We fully expect this film to be the break out star of the late-summer movie season.

(06.26.08) Recommends:

2008-06-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Without Words.

The latest from Andrew Bird in the NYTimes Measure for Measure blog.

(06.25.08) Recommends:

2008-06-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Five Thoughts That Randomly Occurred To Us Throughout Last Night's Alison Krauss/Robert Plant Concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, Calif.

01. The Greek Theater has to be one of the most perfect concert venues in the country.

We generally prefer to see our shows in small dark bars or clubs. However, if we must go to a bigger venue, there are few that we'd rather go to than the Greek Theater. It's almost completely surrounded by the trees of Griffith Park and somehow maintains acoustics that sound as good as any venue you'll go to.

02. The reports of the music industry's death are greatly exaggerated.

One hundred and twenty five bucks. That would have been the number to say if you were on The Price Is Right and were asked to name the retail value of our seats. These were not even the most expensive seats. And all these seats were taken. I'll see your p2p network and raise you $36mm in ticket sales.

03. Quiet ubiquity.

Alison Krauss is everywhere. She's had her hand in dozens and dozens of records. She's won 21 -- twenty one! -- Grammy Awards (though we like to think none of these were quite as satisfying to her as being crowned Old Time Fiddle Champion at the 1984 Winfield (KS) Bluegrass Festival). She might be the most influential modern figure in bluegrass with her contributions to soundtracks to Oh Brother Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain. Yet you never really "hear" about Alison Krauss, yaknow? As far as we can tell she does not get DUIs or spend time in rehab or jail. When you hear about her in LA it's because she's coming through town after convincing one of the Biggest Badasses in the History of Rock Music to put out a countryish-folkish record. And people will pay big bucks to see her. 100 years from now people will still be considering Alison Krauss's music. We think there might be a lesson in there for member's of today's (quasi, pseudo, or otherwise) entertaining class.

04. Greek Theater + Alison Krauss + Robert Plant turns Ostensibly Reasonable and Professional Adults into Texting Schoolgirls/Fanboys/Ninnies.

US: 8:38pm: god i love this venue!

THEM: 10:00pm: last song chills.

US: 10:01pm: goose bumps. omgomgomgomg.

THEM: 10:06pm: holy shit.

US: 10:47pm: omg.

THEM: 10:49pm: such an amazing show.

05. Could a reunion be better than this?

At the end of 2007/beginning of 2008 there was lots of chatter -- plus a reported $200mm offer to Plant -- about a LedZep "reunion." But we're not sure whether such a thing could make, say, Black Country Woman, sound as vital and alive as did upright basses and mandolins and fiddles and Alison Krauss.

(06.24.08) Recommends:

2008-06-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

Forest Fire, Survival (Catbird Records, 2008).

This record might be one of the more interesting things to happen to country music since Uncle Tupelo gave the world No Depression in 1990. Which means, of course, that the record isn't really even country. It's more like sparse, low-fi, rock music that has enough space in it to come off as a bit haunting. The owner of Catbird Records -- which, if you haven't figured out already, has, over the past few years, developed into one of the most interesting record labels we have -- calls it "homegrown hymns for those with no religion." It's absurd to evoke names such as the Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, the Replacements, or even Uncle Tupleo, on a band's first full length album. But at various points all of these bands put out songs that could be called sparse, low-fi homegrown hymns for those with no religion. And at first listen, you're going to hear all of those bands. And that's why we're forced to start this recommendation with the sentence we do.

What's also pretty cool about this record is that Catbird Records is using the "Radiohead Model" by giving consumers options: listen to it as a free stream, a free download, or buy it for whatever price you'd like. (Of course the main difference between this and Radiohead is that Forest Fire does not suck[1].) Go here to make your choice.

So there you have it. Go give this music a listen. It's without doubt one of the year's best releases.

--
[1] (rant) Seriously, people. Isn't it about time we have a wholesale reconsideration of Radiohead? They have to be the most overrated band of our lifetime. Seriously. Every song is several minutes too long, with the same incomprehensible warbling vocals and monotonous computer-generated wall of noise. Now, don't get us wrong. We're not anti-lyrics-that-don't-make-sense, or anti-long-songs. In fact, we've surely been to more Phish concerts than you, and we really enjoyed almost all of them. We get that that type of music can be transcendant.

But here's the thing. Radiohead's music isn't transcendant as much as mostly just annoying.

We think Radiohead fans probably fit into two categories: (1) the group that just doesn't know any better; and (2) the group that was unduly influenced at an early age.

If you are a die-hard Radiohead fan in the former group, we have a challenge for you. We have hours and hours of live Phish shows on tape (hah!) and CD. And we're pretty sure we could make you a 45 minute mix (the length of one side of a 90 minute Maxell XL-II tape, for the old school tape traders in the audience) of live Phish that will make you realize that, on the one hand, "jammy" music can be incredible and, on the other, Radiohead puts out almost uniformly boring music. We certainly understand it's a band's perogative to put out boring music, we are just perplexed by all the Radiohead worship, and after our challenge we're sure you will be too.

What's more concerning to us are die-hard Radiohead fans in the latter group. These people are like the 13-year old who starts smoking cigarettes because he wants to impress the seemingly cool 14-year old of the group. And by the time the 13-year old realizes smoking was not cool, he is either too hooked to do anything about it, or has died of lung cancer. Since we do not wish death upon any music fan, all we are left with is to say that that smoking is not cool and the 14-year old was not cool (didn't you ever stop to think that maybe if he was so cool he would have been able to find friends his own age??) and Radiohead is not cool. (/rant)

(06.23.08) Recommends:

2008-06-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Concert Photography, vol. 15
Sunny Day Sets Fire,
Oxford Collapse,
Frightened Rabbit,
The Roxy,
West Hollywood, Ca.
06.22.08

So we went to see the show that we talked about in this post. As you can tell by the original post, we thought the bill was simply Oxford Collapse and Frightened Rabbit, which was certainly a strong enough bill to get us out of the house. Then we showed up at the venue and saw they were selling Sunny Day Sets Fire merch at the merch table. And the following conversation took place:

Us: Why are you selling Sunny Day Sets Fire stuff?
Them: Um [pause] [followed by eye roll] they're the opening band.
Us: Oh, cool, we didn't know that, we like that band!
Them: [another eye roll].

To be fair, our confusion was also furthered by the fact that, inexplicably, the merch table was also selling posters of Meet Dave. Nobody was able to give us a credible explanation as to why.

This was Sunny Day Sets Fire's first US gig. We enjoyed it. Before we even knew they were on the bill, we were scheduled to see them play Wednesday as part of the LA Film Festival. So we're looking forward to seeing them again.

Next up was Oxford Collapse. There was a period back in '06 when we went about six weeks with listening to nothing but Please Visit Your National Parks. It's unclear whether we were even eating/showering during this period, so hooked were we to thi song.

The main attraction was, of course, Frightened Rabbit. They were really fun. Pretty straight forward live reproductions of the songs (in a good way). Lots of loose stage banter (again, in a good way). The crowd was really responding. It was a good set. We're going to be hearing lots more about this band. And that's a good thing.

(06.22.08) Recommends:

2008-06-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

Connecting Consumers of Hyperlocal Content with Producers of Hyperlocal Content.

So, Hyperlocal blogging. Placeblogging. Citizen journalism. Whatever you call it, the idea is you see something of interest happening in your neighborhood or community and you blog it. Bloggers and citizens and venture capitalists (see, Outside.in, twitter, et al) are just getting out of the gates figuring how it's all going to happen. But there is no dispute that it will happen. Over the last several decades we have witnessed media consolidation of an unprecedented scale, and we are now at the beginning stages of the biggest media decentralization in the history of the world. You can laugh at this idea or take it seriously. We're choosing to take it seriously. And having come of age on the internet (we were high school freshman when the first internet browser was commercially released), we strongly urge everybody take it seriously.

Here's an example that shows there is demand for hyperlocal content that is not being met with supply. Yesterday afternoon, as we were descending our neighborhood of Beachwood Canyon, two police cars were urgently ascending it. While this does not happen tremendously frequently, in a city as big as Los Angeles it still happens enough that you don't think about what's happening. Probably a small fire, you shrug off.

But as we came back to our neighborhood, later that afternoon, we noticed that the Franklin Ave. entrance to Beachwood Canyon was blocked off by police presence. We thought this was stranger than the urgent police we previously had seen, but we were still reluctant to draw any connection. This is Hollywood after all, sometimes streets just close down for filming or whatever.

But then a curious thing happened. We got online. And one of the first things we do when we get online is browse the page that tracks our blog's analytics. And starting at 6pm, and steadily continuing until currently, we were getting lots of traffic directed by google from people searching some form of "hostage beachwood canyon" due to the combination of our frequent blogging about our neighborhood and one random post where we jokingly said our camera was being held hostage by a terrorist. In fact, if you currently google the term, our blog will be the first hit. Here's a screenshot of our analytics page (clicking on the pic brings up a bigger image):

So, we did some googling of our own. Currently nothing in the LA Times. Currently nothing in the local blogs we frequently check. But something happened last night in Beachwood Canyon that is a concern to residents. And the first instincts of those residents was to search the internet for more information. It may or may not have even been a hostage situation; the story has not been told, but people want the news and are willing to go to sources outside of the mainstream to find it.

Filling this void, eventually, will be this new form of citizen media. At some point in the near future, I [to drive home the point I'll step outside my usual use of "we"] won't be the only one who will be able to see that people around my neighborhood are searching in abnormally and statistically significant numbers for hostage news. Last night might have been a disconcerting way to see the future. But the future usually springs forth from discontent.

Things are changing, people. And we all get to play a role in the resolution of that change. This should be exciting to us all.

Update: here's a news clip calling the whole episode a hoax.

(06.20.08) Recommends:

2008-06-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Things You Can Do Over Lunch on Broadway Between 9th & 6th Streets.

01. Attempt to stalk Johnny Depp.

02. Sell hippies bags filled with pencil shavings.

03. Get some divine inspiration before ...

04. Risking your entire paycheck at one place.

05. If you lost your pants at the arcade, you can purchase a new pair.

06. No need to feel selfish for the purchase, you can buy some for your family, too.

07. If you did really well at the arcade, you can buy your Significant Other some jewelry.

08. If you only did okay, you can purchase your Significant Other some perfume.

09. If you did less than okay, you can purchase your Significant Other a nice head dress. [note: Perez Hilton sez these will be all the rage for Summer 2K8].

10. Of course, all of this presupposes you even have a Significant Other, which may or may not even be likely.

11. The street is big, so you may get lost, but you shouldn't have a hard time figuring out where you are.

12. Remember to eat.

13. Forget how to spell.

(06.20.08) Recommends:

2008-06-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

Getting Your Tickets to the Conor Oberst Show at the Troubadour.

They go on sale in 2 minutes, yo. We're guessing they won't last long...

(06.20.08) Recommends:

2008-06-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

A Cure For Getting Out Of Your Head The Song You Woke Up With In Your Head.

So. It's Friday. And you woke up with a song in your head. You hummed it as you were hitting the snooze button. You hummed it as you ate a donut for breakfast. You hummed it as you worked your way through, what your undergraduate hallmate called the 3S's. You hummed it on your commute into work. Under normal circumstances, to get the song cycled through your head -- thus making room for its inevitable next obsession -- you would simply listen to the song, on repeat, all day. But the problem is, the particular version of the particular song you woke up with in your head was only unofficially released as part of the officially released outtakes of a documentary made about the band. And lugging the DVD to work and finding the particular clip and then creating some kind of loop to satisfy your need to hear the song continuously, all day long, seems too daunting a task. So what is a person to do? How, you're wondering, do you get the song out of your head?

Before the internet, we're not sure there was an easy answer. But now, you just find the clip on youtube. And listen to the song for the next 10-12 hours. And, of course, apologize in advance to all co-workers for subjecting them to this song, on repeat, all day long. But. It just has to be one of those days today.

Wilco -- How to Fight Loneliness -- youtube.

(06.18.08) Recommends:

2008-06-18T09:16:00.001-07:00

Summer Cookout!

June is the official start of summer and there's really no better way to kick off summer than gathering around pools, booze, and grilled meats. Because we are nerds, and also because you may need some edification, following is A Primer On Summertime Cookouts.

Summertime cookouts are first and foremost about celebrating indulgence. The indulgence of leizure time, the indulgence of youth, the indulgence of being at the top of the food chain. As such, it is proper to begin a cookout at a place that sells stuff in the most unreasonable and unsustainable quantities possibly imaginable: Costco!

Because really, why buy enough for just one salad, when, for just a few dollars more, it is possible to foritfy your house/compound with a column of lettuce six feet tall?

You might think you're only in the mood for one slice of salami. But the day is longer and the sun beats down hotter than you anticipate and you just never really know when you might need stacks and stacks of salami!

And when the ocean seems to be running out of its natural supply of various lifeforms, why not just create your own goddamn ocean ecosystem?

Perhaps the most impressive thing sold at Costco was this tent which, although this picture hardly does it justice, is actually bigger than our apartment by an order of magnitude.

Implements of Destruction, Pt. 1:

The next step is to try to repent for your mega-structure shopping ways, by hitting Trader Joe's.

We had to violate Picture No. 1 (note: click on the pic for a better view) to capture this picture. We apologize.

You see, Trader Joe's encourages sustainable, responsible and healthy shopping choices including but not limited to, offering the following six bottles of wine for a total of twelve dollars.

Implements of Destruction, Pt. 2:

You should never attempt to start a cookout without first visiting the crazy uncle of shopping facilities: Rite Aid!

Implements of Destruction, Pt. 3:

Implements of Destruction, Pt. 4:

Now that you have safely made it back to the kitchen, it is time to make your shopping bounty bend to your will. What do we do with scallops that just sit there, taunting us with their pale flesh and laziness?

We wrap them in bacon and stick them with skewers!

Men are pretty simple creatures. Below find the Secret to Taming Man: Gigantic Potato? Check. Gigantic Knife? Check. Things Wrapped in Gigantic Pieces of Bacon? Check. The Champagne of Beer? Chiggity Check. Game, set, match. We'll give the gentlemen readers a few seconds to still their hearts before moving to the next picture.

Back when we were young and full of vinegar the world only existed in sepia tones, and all we had to eat was boiled potatos.

But kids today will demand their technicolor and fancy cut potatos and use of liberal-elite Chinaman sticks. Be prepared for The Modern Age and your cookout will be a success.

If you are like us, you should probably only be allowed to make one part of the cookout. Our old standby we like to call Skillet Full of Butter.

By now, it's time to get down to brass tacks. Remember: cook tri-tip with the fat side up (we don't know why this is true, it's just what the package said).

Once Al Gore stops trying to do the whole fashionable "save the environment" thing, we're hopeful he'll move on to important things, such as getting busy inventing the Scratch 'n Sniff Internet. When that happens the following pictures will really knock your socks off.

After [some amount of time], the meat will be ready to be taken off the grill. At which point you should cut [either with or against] the grain.

A meal fit for a King.

Cookout Economics 101: Since it came into effect in 1994, NAFTA has made it increasingly difficult for American Beers to compete on an even playing field with Mexican Beers. At some point in your cookout, you will probably run out of American Beer. But, since you're already eating with liberal-elite Chinaman Sticks, you and your hippie friends will have no problem drinking beer that's causing both the entire state of Ohio to go bankrupt and a huge influx of illegal immagration. Note: this is the theory that at least one person at your cook out will probably put forth at some point during the day. Rather than engaging, it's probably best just to laugh at this person and tell them they don't know shit about shit. This most likely will end the conversation peacefully. At which point you can go back to listening to the Beach Boys and talking about the awesomeness of the television show Deadliest Catch.

One thing that is true about beer, American, Mexican, or otherwise, is if you don't handle it properly, it can make your vision a bit fuzzy. This is to be avoided at all costs.

Your cookout will be delicious and you will want to devour it in three bites, but put forth an effort to finish your plate gracefully, in a manner befitting artsy black and white photography.

It is always best to invite people to your cookouts who are more interesting, talented, and/or famous than you. Because let's face it, your stories are getting a little long in the tooth. Perhaps you know the next future Mr. and Mrs. Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida?

Or wait, is it the next future Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss? Either way, the point is you don't want a cookout where you're drinking by yourself (this is what your bathroom mirror is for, right?)

Once you get bored looking at each other, it's nice to have a pleasant view upon which to rest your gaze. The way it twinkles at dusk you can almost see why they call it the City of Angels.

However, we like to think of it as our own personal snow globe. Oh yes, Los Angeles, you've been warned. We will shake you up and remake you in our own image.

At some point, people might get tired and/or annoyed with all your photography. The shooter will become the shot (will become the shooter will become the shot will become the shooter will become the shot...)

After eating, you must remember to wait 30-40 minutes for your food to digest. Then you will get to make your final decision of the cookout. Hot tub?

Or pool?

There you have it. Following this simple primer nearly guarantees your next summertime cookout will be a raging success.

(06.10.08) Recommends:

2008-06-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

Frightened Rabbit, The Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat Records, 2008).

This one comes to us courtesy of a friend who seems to specialize in finding great international indie-rock. This band hails from Scotland. They sound like the Counting Crows, if the Counting Crows were more indie rock. And from Scotland. And for those brave enough to acknowledge that August and Everything After is among the Five Most Perfect Records Of Our Generation, you have already starting listening to this album, because there's no way you could reasonably get through such a description without already clicking through to the links and diving right in.

Those in LA take note: the band plays at the Roxy on June 22. They're playing with Oxford Collapse, an old blog favorite.

Frightened Rabbit @ myspace.

(06.09.08) Recommends:

2008-06-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

The track "Le petit Succes" by Olivier Libaux presents Imbecile.

Indie 103 has a Saturday morning show called Passport Approved that plays music from all over the globe. The songs can be very hit or miss, but they played this song -- it's a band from France, and that's just about all that we can figure out about this band/song -- last Saturday and it's a god damn home run. The only problem is that we can find neither an mp3 of it, nor a place where more than 30 seconds of it is streamed (here), anywhere on the internet. Additionally, we'd be willing to buy the entire album for the song (rememeber when this was, like, people's only option??), but we cannot even find a place that reliably sells the album. It's as if this song came to us in a dream and disappeared when we woke up. But the song has been dancing around our head all weekend. So we thought we'd blog about it in the hope that some kind soul will google the song and/or band and will pass along the track to us.

(06.06.08) Recommends:

2008-06-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Winning the Title He Should Have Won at Kansas.

Growing up sports fans in the Midwest, there are several rules you Learn To Be True. One of them is this: there aren't any Real Sports Fans native to the West Coast of the country and especially not in Los Angeles -- no, no, in LA, you're told, they eat sushi at baseball games, or worse yet are vegetarians; the women are made of plastic and the men wear sunglasses at all times, probably to reduce the glare from the shiny black shirts they also wear at all times, along with gel in their hair, which you can never actually see because they're always wearing, like, fedoras.

The men and women of Los Angeles, you Learn To Be True, are many things, but Real Sports Fans are not among these things.

It was under this Belief that yesterday led us to say, nonchalantly and on several occasions, in response to chatter about the Lakers vs. Celtics series that yeah we're kinda hoping the Celtics can pull this one out. Well. Each time was met with a more dramatic double take and guttural huff, such that by the end of the day we pretended we were Uzbekistanian and No Speak English and therefore would respond to all Lakers vs. Celtics questions which a shrug of the shoulder. Perhaps, we briefly thought, there are Rules To Be Un-Learned.

But. Here's the thing. We actually do want the Celtics to pull this one out, as should you, probably. And it's not because we're one of those people who live in Los Angeles but spend all our time hating on the city. We actually love it here. Nor is it because we're just trying to be contrarian. Most people we know here weren't born here, so to them there's nothing contrarian about it. Nor is it because we are racist. [This, of course, comes from that wacky theory that says during the 80s era Lakers vs. Celtics match-ups, all white racists loved the Celtics, all black people loved the Lakers, and whites trying to be progressive rooted for the Lakers. We actually did root for those Lakers team, but it was mostly because we've always had many voices in our head, including a Tim Gunn voice, and our inner five year old Tim Gunn voice made it clear in no uncertain terms that Larry Bird Was Among the Five Ugliest Humans Ever, and thus we had to cheer for the Lakers.]

No, the reason we're pulling for Boston is simple. The Celtics have a connection. Paul Pierce plays for the Celtics. Paul Pierce played at Kansas. We went to Kansas. Bingo. Yeah, we're kinda hoping the Celtics can pull this one out.

It also happens that Paul Pierce didn't just play at Kansas. He was an All American and was on two teams that are arguably among the two best teams in the history of KU basketball (this one and this one). They will never properly be remembered as among the great college teams of all-time, however, as they are also the two primary reasons that gave Roy Williams the label of choker, for those two teams suffered two of the most miserable losses in the history of KU basketball (this one and this one).

Then Paul Pierce left as a junior. He got drafted way lower than he should have. Then he got stabbed, nearly to death.

So homeboy has had his fair share of rough patches. But now he's on the stage he should have been on all along. Certainly a stage he should have been on at least twice at KU. He's playing for all the marbles. And Good Christ, did you see how he responded last night? Took over the game.

We hope he can do it three more times.

(06.04.08) Recommends:

2008-06-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Track: Give Up On Ghosts.
Album: Computer vs. Banjo (release date, June 17 2008).
Band: Computer vs. Banjo.

This track came to us this morning and woowie wow. We don't see us being able to stop listening to it all day. Or all week. Give Up On Ghosts is the official Song of June 2008. We don't know anything about this band, but we hope to get our hands on the full record soon, at which point we will bring more of the bloggity blog. Until then, click the link below and say hello to your new favorite song.

Computer vs. Banjo -- Give Up On Ghosts -- mp3.

Computer vs Banjo @ myspace.

(06.03.08) Recommends:

2008-06-03T08:56:00.001-07:00

Goat Stew.
El Parian,
1528 W. Pico Blvd.

This post is years in the making. And as with most interesting Los Angeles food stories, it all starts with Jonathan Gold. Jonathan Gold is a food critic for the LA Weekly. But he's not your parents' food critic. He's like the mad scientist of food writing: on one hand, his stuff reads more like stories from back issues of Punk Planet than Gourmet magazine; on the other hand, his rock 'n roll aesthetic belies the fact that he was awarded a Pultizer Prize in 2007 (the first food critic so honored). He has also turned his writing into perfect little radio documentaries for This American Life (scroll ahead to 45:12 to get to his story).

It was from that radio tale that we first heard Jonathan Gold talk about the goat stew at El Parian. At the time, he was living off Pico Blvd and got the idea to eat at every restaurant on Pico. When we first heard this episode we pictured Pico being perhaps a five or six mile street with a high concentration of ethic restaurants. We thought it was a cute idea. Then we moved to Los Angeles. And drove along Pico Blvd. And let's just say, claiming you are going to eat at every restaurant on Pico Blvd would be roughly equivalent to saying you are going to eat at every restaurant in Kansas (and probably even a bit more audacious). It's the first time we sensed that Jonathan Gold marches to the beat of a different drummer. We knew we had to seek out El Parian.

It's a bit hard to find because it takes up two store fronts and one of the store fronts perpetually looks closed.

But as the little blue sign in the corner indicates it is open. In fact, when we called the restaurant we were informed that it's open from 7:30am-9pm. Which is to say, people really really like the goat stew here. And apparently are willing to come very early to get it.

The menu. Although it's a little blurred out, the menu says "A Bit of Mexico in Los Angeles."

And lest you think that El Parian is joking about playing by it's own rules, you flip the menu around and find this startling proclamation.

Here's a close up.

"We reserve the right to serve beer to anyone 0-4 Maximum." For anybody who has ever eaten at a restaurant full of screaming toddlers and thought, "god, nothing would shut those small children up like serving them four beers!", well, El Parian appears to be just what you've been seeking. However, they took one look at us and, perhaps wisely, served us Diet Coke.

We've been reading lots of food books lately, mostly about how we as a culture eat, what might be wrong with that way, and how might we move forward. And one of the things of which we're convinced is that the future of food is in transparency. El Parian already understands this because as you first walk in you hear the cooks thump-thump-thumping away at goat meat and you see vats of goat right from your table.

And out of those vats comes a delicious bowl of steaming goat stew. We devoured this thing at about 10:45am and did not have to eat the rest of the day. We have yet to find a friend who is willing to travel to El Parian with us, but regardless, we can't wait to get back.

(05.30.08) Recommends:

2008-05-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Ema and the Ghosts.

After yesterday's Beirut post, we got an email tip to check out Ema and the Ghosts. So we went to her myspace and, honestly, the first thing we noticed was her profile introduction:

ema is a girl who would like to make a sound to make a feeling to make a revolution. yes, she understands the unlikelyhood of this daydream being realized but she does not care. she has more important things to worry about.

Okay, as far as myspace profiles go, that's pretty crush-worthy. The next thing we noticed was the music. It's one female, an accordion, a ukulele, random bells and whistles. Completely charming. If you like Beirut or Jens Lekman or Andrew Bird or the Moldy Peaches or if you breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide, we're willing to bet that you'll enjoy Ema and the Ghosts.

Ema and the Ghosts at Myspace.

(05.29.08) Recommends:

2008-05-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Return of Beirut.

Oh, Zach Condon. What more can we possibly say about him? He released music in 2006 and it was among our favorite music of that year. He released some more music in 2007 and it was among our favorite music of that year.

He's an interesting artist for many reasons, but one of the things that strikes us is this. If you read this blog because you're really into music, you're familiar with Beirut. If you read this blog simply because you know us, you're probably not familiar with Beirut. And if you get out from beyond your computers right now and ask the first five people you come across if they know of Beirut, after clarifying that you're talking about the band, we can almost guarantee that you'll be meet with blank stares. So here's what's awesome. Last time Beirut came through Los Angeles -- October '07 -- they played two shows at the Avalon (the first of which we know for sure was sold out). The Avalon is not the Hollywood Bowl, but it easily fits in excess of 1,000 people. It's quite impressive playing, let alone selling out, a venue that size while being a band that is in large measure obscure.

And not only did Beirut sell out the Avalon. The crowd was as attentive as any crowd we've ever seen. Hanging on his every word. Singing along to every word. And at the time of these shows Beirut's second full length album had been officially released less than a week, yet we overheard at least two people claim various songs on the album were their favorite songs of all time. And we don't think this was simply hipster hyperbole. Zach Condon has an effect on people that is true and pure and above all else real. (As an example, after the show, we went home and were inspired to start goofing around with our camera. We took a picture of the concert ticket and within thirty minutes had created what has turned out to be easily one of this blog's most viewed posts).

People of our generation, we're the Mtv generation. We've been advertised to our entire lives. Since our earliest years, we've been sold soda and shoes and lifestyles and dreams. It's become hard to tell the difference between what we really think and believe and feel and what we're told we're supposed to think and believe and feel. It seems that every time we stumble upon something authentic and different, in come the marketers to repackage it and sell it on a mass scale. It's enough to make one crazy. Unfortunately, cynical, we think, is what it's made most of us. There's a sense of sadness that pervades our generation because we desperately seek things real -- real emotions, real connections, whatever -- but too often feel we are left with the manufactured, facsimiles. We want to know that the emotions that we experience are the emotions we actually have, and not the emotions that marketers and advertisers and media executives are feeding us.

And into this vast space steps Zach Condon. He is real and pure and haunting and haunted and seems like he arrived in our speakers straight out of a novel. People are responding, we suppose, because they fear this moment is fleeting. That Zach Condon will one day just up and vanish. Well, for now Beirut is back for two shows. This time at the Wiltern. The band is still pretty obscure. But that hasn't stopped them from already selling out the Friday show.

If you sometimes feel overwhelmed with the cynical and the snarky and the snide and the sarcastic, we really recommend going to one of these shows. We guarantee they will be life affirming. And that's a good thing.

Beirut -- various tracks -- streaming audio.

(05.28.08) Recommends:

2008-05-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

The Track "Creeper" from Islands' "Arm's Way" (Anti, 2008).

We're so underground that we've been anxiously awaiting Islands backlash since Nick Thornborn was still in the Unicorns. We're kidding, of course (click here for some background history); there are few bands in recent years that we've listened to with as much awe as the Unicorns and then Islands (though we've always thought Islands makes some of their songs about 90 seconds too long). So we waited with baited breath for the newest Islands release -- literally: we were on a strict fish bait diet for like three weeks prior to the release.

It came out several weeks ago but we've held off writing about it because we wanted to fully dig into it. And, frankly, it's also taken several weeks because it leads off with Creeper and it took us about nine days before our brain would allow us to move on to track 2.

So today we're gonna drop some Islands crumbs. If you listen to only one track on Arm's Way, it should be this one.

(05.27.08) Recommends:

2008-05-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

Bharta.
Surya India,
8048 W. 3rd St.

We've lived in both the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles. We notice certain differences between the two. There is a certain rivalry between them, though probably not as much as people outside of the two areas would imagine. We've also come to appreciate certain similarities between the two as well. And say what you will about the two areas, but this much is hard to argue with: living in either one is pretty different than living in Kansas.

There are many differences that we expected, and expected to enjoy, before we moved -- the weather, the geographic diversity, the concentration of ambitious young people who flock here from all over the country and world. But these are pretty much the differences that lured us here in the first place. There are also differences that we didn't really think much about, but that we now find ourselves loving and they leave us unable to imagine how we could have gone so long living without them. One of the most pleasantly surprising differences that we've come to love is the diversity of ethnic food. We have never really been Food People; pasta and chicken pretty much got us to our early 20s. And still today, we cannot be considered foodies or food snobs (mostly because we just eat what is put in front of us with little understanding of or regard for the ingredients or how it's put together or the proper verbs used to describe food and ambiance), but we have been surprised to find out how much we love exploring new restaurants, and particularly restaurants that offer cuisine that is rare or non-existent in Kansas, it of the 91% white population.

So this weekend's revelation: bharta. Pardon our French -- we're talking food here, so an illusion to the French somehow seems necessary, right? -- but: Holy Shit. We ordered this, along with three or four other dishes, from Surya and had it delieverd. And when a Fellow Blogger put it on the table it looked to us like a container of tomato puree and we were neither excited with its look nor sure what to do with it. And even now, all we know for sure about bharta is that it is a vegetarian India dish made out of eggplant. But we were told to put some on our plate over our rice and we did what we were told and, again: Holy Shit.

We don't think we've ever thought of eggplant and crack at the same time, but bharta was bridging all sorts of divides this weekend. And again, because we are not foodies, we don't know if Bharta is "authenthic" (but trust us when we say we don't care). For all we know, bharta might be the Indian equivalent of a chili dog or a funnel cake -- something unsophicated for which your love can only be expressed to yourself while you are driving alone in the car or taking a shower.

Whatever bharta's story, we loved it and ate the whole container and when it was gone insisted on scraping up the container with nan, to make sure every last lick was gone.

And here we sit, Tuesday morning, and all we can think about is the next time we get to have it.

Surya India:
On the web.
Reviews.

(05.27.08) Recommends:

2008-05-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

How Me Breaking Up With You Is Like Jon Lester Pitching A No Hitter Against The Kansas City Royals.

(05.21.08) Recommends:

2008-05-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Karma Police.

Question: What do you get for inventing bands like Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync?

Answer: Why, 25 years in prision, natch.

(05.20.08) Recommends:

2008-05-20T18:04:00.001-07:00

Carbon Dating.

As an alternative to, you know, Online Dating.

Think about it, people. Think about it.

(05.19.08) Recommends:

2008-05-19T18:36:00.001-07:00

Mount Righteous.

This is some kind of 11-piece acoustic-indie-rock-punk marching band. We keep seeing this name pop up in our inboxes and they're playing a bunch of local shows in the coming weeks so we're very excited to catch them live. We've been listening to their myspace all day and we like what we've heard. They kind of remind us of Head of Femur, (myspace) which is another old live favorite of the blog.