Catch-up

May 20th, 2009 · No Comments

So, a quick recap of the last five weeks, more for the future us than for anyone else, because we end up using the blog to jar our deficiently attentive, distracted brains when we can’t remember what we’ve done. So, I call on Flickr, our credit card statements, Google Maps, and Google Calendar to help me out, and we’ll see what we get:

April 18: We went to dinner at Jiraffe in Santa Monica to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our engagement in San Francisco.

April 19: We walked from our house to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, a healthy three-plus miles each way. We stopped at the Rose Café in Venice for breakfast, got some veggies for the week at the Farmer’s Market, and ran into some friends at the pancake stall.

Is this the line for grilled cheese?

April 25: We went to Los Angeles State Historic Park for The Grilled Cheese Invitational, but after standing in line for an hour and not moving, we gave up (there were definitely multiple thousands of people there) and headed to Wurstküche for a tasty lunch of sausages and beer. Mmm.

Will Rogers State Park

April 26: We went for a hike in the hidden gem (and home to the only regulation polo field in L.A.) that is Will Rogers State Park; photos here. After our hike, we took our first home-delivered Sunday L. A. Times and tried out Zabie’s, a tasty local spot that we’ll definitely be visiting again. I did some work on the shed, and we caught the excellent Adventureland at the Landmark. I also took advantage of our new-found proximity to the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theater in Santa Monica to catch a screening of John Ford’s They Were Expendable, followed by a discussion with Ford’s grandson.

The week of April 27, we had a painter come in and finish off our biggest to-do left: the trim, crown molding, doors, door frames, and window frames. It ended up taking four days, and it seemed a little touch and go for awhile, but it ended up fine, and left the bathroom light and the shed as our two biggest to-dos left.

May 1: We went to the Tattle Tale Room, a Culver City institution, for karaoke with friends, many of who were in town for the Orphans West film symposium. It was a blast: we had a great time, got to know Larry G. and some of the other regulars, and even walked away with a complimentary Tattle Tale beer cozy. I then attended the symposium, at the Silent Movie Theater, on Saturday and Sunday, mixed in with some shed sanding and painting. We had breakfast on Sunday at the O.P. Cafe, another local breakfast place that had a terrific $3 breakfast special (?) that we’ll be back for sometime soon.

Man, this is boring. I’m glad I don’t do it this way all the time.

May 6: I went to see Mickey Rooney at the Aero, talking after a screening of Requiem for a Heavyweight, which I thought was excellent. Mickey was in fine form, going on and on about his grandkids and seeming to prefer dispensing family advice rather than talking about his long, long career.

May 7: Aimee came to Hollywood to pick me up, maybe the first time she’d been back since we moved (and didn’t miss the commute one bit), and we went out for fish tacos (she was unimpressed, sadly) before an 826LA benefit sneak preview of Away We Go. We really enjoyed the film, and it was a treat to have the stars (John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph), the writers (Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida), and the director (Sam Mendes) on stage to talk about it afterwards. A mercifully short break between film and discussion, a well-moderated Q&A, and no horrible questions from the audience – it was a great night.

May 8: An electrician came in the morning and got our bathroom light working, finally. As much as we enjoyed the old Maglight-in-a-Kleenex-box trick, it’s great to have a working light in there. Aimee won tickets from school to see The Seafarer at the Geffen that night, so we had a tasty dinner at Mr. Noodle beforehand, across the street from hundred of people in line for Star Trek, and enjoyed the play, despite the wavering Irish accents. Nice to see John Mahoney on stage.

May 9: We started out with a quick trip to REI, where we took advantage of their sale and my dividend to get some stuff for New Zealand, which is suddenly next month, after seeming so far away for so long. Then it was off to pick up Brian, Mark, and Jeff at work and head to the Echoplex for the first ever Craft Beer Fest LA, another 826LA benefit. Having bought our tickets ahead of time (are you listening, Grilled Cheese Invitational?), we zipped right in and got down to the business of enjoying samples of more than thirty local craft brews, plus hefeweizen cupcakes, mini-burritos, Guinness gelato from Scoops, and lots of other treats. The beer was terrific, the even was extremely well-run, and we had a blast, despite the eventually crushing crowds.



The day was far from over, though: first, it was upstairs from the Echoplex to Two Boots, the new Los Angeles location of the New York pizza landmark I fondly remember frequenting with George in the late ’90s. That sounds like a long time ago. Then, without missing a beat, we headed to a screening of Star Trek, which we all enjoyed. It was a long but very enjoyable day.

May 10: With our trim paint done, a light in our bathroom, and a painted shed, we thought it would be a good time to have people over from work, so about 20 people came over for grilling in the backyard. The house did well, the patio and lawn were accommodating, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Now we just have to find some way to go through all of the sausages that are left over. I’m not having any trouble with the beer that remains, though it will be a long while before it’s all gone.

BBQ #1

May 16: We started off Saturday with a hike near Malibu, a beautiful 5.5 mile trip through fog-shrouded canyons up to a lookout that would have afforded some spectacular views of the coast and ocean, if we could have seen anything through the fog. It was still a lot of fun, and a good local hike.

Paseo Miramar

More photos from the hike here.

I had given Aimee a “downtown evening” for Christmas, made up of a trip to a museum, dinner at a noodle restaurant, and a drink at L.A.’s only revolving lounge, the Bona Vista at the Westin Bonaventure. We had an interesting dinner at Daikokuya, called the best noodle restaurant in L.A. but perhaps a little bit of an acquired taste, and then headed to the Westin. We rode up in one of the elevators marked with a plaque stating that it had been used in the film True Lies (moving images here) in the scene where our current governor enters the elevator on a horse in order to chase a killer who has entered a neighboring elevator on a motorcycle. The plaque, and more photos. Ah, L.A.

We enjoyed the ever-chaning views from the 34th floor, as well as an over-priced drink (though not the movie-themed, commemorative-glassed “Technicooler”), and as the night was still young, decided to try out The Edison.

I hadn’t heard much about the place, except for its Depression/Recession drink specials, so we didn’t really know what to expect. It’s a remarkable space, a cavernous former power plant that has been converted into a huge bar/lounge/club, with little rooms and nooks all over, peppered with boilers, engines, turbines, and other equipment. We watched Modern Times on a flat-screen and enjoyed our drinks as we sat on a little bench near their absinthe cabinet. It was fairly empty when we arrived, but was packed by the time we left, and, for the first time, we felt under-dressed in L.A.

The Edison

The Edison

May 17: We hadn’t really intended for this to be a Downtown weekend, but it ended up that way. We headed back down to tackle a few more of our Walking L.A. walks, after starting off with a tasty breakfast (though without the Maple Glaze Bacon Donut) at the Nickel Diner. We toured Little Tokyo first, and enjoyed some of the hidden gardens in the area.

Little Tokyo

More photos from Little Tokyo.

From there, we headed to Olvera Street, where Aimee has been a number of times with her students, but I’d never visited. We looked around, headed past Philippe’s to Chinatown, and wandered the streets there for a bit, looking in some of the overflowing outdoor malls and checking out the massive gates.

El Pueblo

Chinatown

Olvera and Chinatown photos.

So, that about brings us up to this week, albeit without much detail or thoughtfulness. Hopefully I’ll do a better job of backing up next time, and my hosting service will do a better job of not erasing things, so I won’t have to do any more recaps. We’re readying for our trip to Richmond, I’m running four days a week, we’re planning our garage renovation, we’re looking forward to Aimee’s parents’ visit next weekend, and the beginning of summer. It’s going to be a busy one.

Tags: Film · Los Angeles · Photos ·