Rendevouz At The Roosevelt or It's Too Late For Sharon Tate

May 19 2017

So as it turns out this week is 'screening season' in Los Angeles.  It's when the studios and networks screen all of their latest offerings to international buyers and acquisition types.

One of those types is old mate EG who I worked with for a few years at Fox Studios in Sydney and is now ponying up as an exec in Old Blighty.  (That's England in case you didn't know).  Well to be more specific in this case, London.

After a few days of back and forth we finally managed to meet up at the Roosevelt Hotel where she's staying.  What a great night.  First we started off at one of the many, many bars at the Roosevelt, a swanky hotel with a very rich Hollywood history.  It's also named after the guy they named the Teddy Bear after.  Doesn't get much cooler, really.

It was built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style in 1926, and was bankrolled by none other than a group helmed by Louis B. Mayer, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Sid Grauman.  It's the longest running hotel in Los Angeles and its ballroom was also the site of the very first Academy Awards.   Here's a shot of Pickford, Fairbanks and Grauman across the road, getting cement under their fingernails at some famous theater LOL.  Look vaguely familiar?

EG and I were hardly wetting our hands in the cement, but what a great place to start our catch up, in what turned out to be a night studded with pop culture references and ye olde glamour.  We were in what I think was called the Library Bar.  Being a tee-totaller that would usually put me in the wrong place, at the right time, but our barkeep made a homemade Ginger Beer that was metaphorically to die for.

We snuck out to a local drugstore to get cigs and couldn't help but snap a nice little shot with the old fashioned neon liquor sign in the background.  And a few palm trees to boot.  Funny, surrounded by all that glamour and I manage to selfie next to blocks of cement and chicken wire.  Go figure....

It had been so long between 'drinks' and there was a lot of stuff to catch up on since we'd last seen each other.  I'll always make time for my Elvis-lovin' old bean!

After meeting with a few of her friends in the bar, they've gotta take off, so we're left to our own devices for dinner.

I've got the perfect spot.

El Coyote in Fairfax is a Mexican restaurant which has been running since 1931.  It always seems full, which is a good sign.  The kookiest part of this place is it's the last place that Sharon Tate ate a meal, before she met her gruesome end at the hands of the acid-riddled psycho-giggling murder gaggle otherwise known as The Manson Family.

"We HAVE to eat there" .. EG proclaims.

I've got no problem with that either ... WE'RE IN!!

After waiting for ages, then struggling to take a photo under the neon light (you know, that thing where the camera wants to focus on the light, and not on you?) we end up getting an outside table.

We were never going to get the Tate booth, they just don't take bookings for less than 6 people, as I found out earlier that night.  Bugger.

Still, the waiter was super attentive and helpful.  The food was brilliant and it was just a super fun night from start to end.

Before we get stuck into El Coyote's brilliant dishes I find out that EG's never had Poppers (deep fried crumbed jalapenos filled with cream cheese) before.  It might be too late for Sharon Tate, but not for us. (Couldn't resist, sorry).  Neither of us are chilli fans but there's no way we're leaving until she's tried one!   Soooo GOOOOODDD!!!!

I escort EG back to her hotel.  Before I let her split back into her room for another gruelling day of screenings we've just got to check out the pool bar.  It's apparently a 'happening thing'.  There's a David Hockney mural on the bottom of the pool floor but just couldn't get it without a selfie stick (and at this point I'm too cool to take that route).

One of the best nights I've had in ages, with a super awesome girl.  Now I'm hanging out until the next screening season! 

#california #losangeles #sabbatical #hotelroosevelt #sharontate #marypickford #douglasfairbanksjr #sydgrauman #graumanschinesetheatre #drugstore #gingerbeer #elcoyote #sharontate #themansonfamily #friendship

PUPUSAS!!

May 16 2017

PUPUSAS!!  If you have never heard of these, you're missing out!  They're a delicious doughy meal that originated in El Salvador.  It's like a meat and or cheese filled tortilla.  They're served with a bit of a watery chilli salad that perfectly complements the texture of this tasty treat.

My airbnb host recommended this excellent restaurant even though there were closer ones to the house.  I dragged old mate VR down there with me to check it out. 

He doesn't like plantains but I do.  So I ate the whole plate by myself.

I'll be back!

Standing outside the Faultline enjoying some Out-Standing food

May 15 2017

I've been in los angeles two months now and there's no sign of me getting sick of eating Mexican food.  I haven't even started.  The food trucks are everywhere, sometimes they're not even a truck.  They're just loaded up on the pavement with a generator (or an open coal fire) and they're just doing what they do best.

I'd been at the faultline for a few drinks .. non alcoholic of course!  I was ready to head  home then I saw these crunchy deep fried quesadillas and I couldn't help myself.

So I'm just parked up on the street eating one of the items on the far right of the above picture.  Then the owner of the stall kind of gets in front of me and starts spouting something in Spanish.  I can only pick up pieces of what he's saying but he seems kind of upset.  He's standing right in front of me and talking to the other people at the stall.  I guess he's complaining that I'm just sitting there eating the food and not making eye contact. Or something?  Go figure.  Just let me eat my goddamn quesadilla mister.  It's not like I didn't pay for it.

Anway I'm just looking at the ground trying to mind my own business and I'm totally consumed by how amazing this food is.

When I'm done I go to the lady that served me and gushed enthusiastically about how great the food was and what a great job they're doing.  That guy that was going a little crazy seemed very sheepish all of a sudden.  So I guess I'm doing better at translating Spanish than I'd previously guessed.  But boy, I've got a long way to go.

Now for a gratuitous condiment shot.

And just for the record, here's the grill these streetside stalls make their food on.  To die for.  Plus, couldn't resist getting that flattened out Coke box on the ground in the shot!

The Eagle's New Old Re-Design

May 14 2017

So my favourite watering hole in LA is Silver Lake's Eagle LA.  Great bar, but it's no secret why I picked this spot.  Yup, it has an outdoor smoking area.  And hardly a twink in sight.

Usually you have to enter through the carpark-y entrance to the side, but tonight the bar is actually accessible through the front door.  WT???  That door's never open!

So as it turns out there's some plumbing issues going on behind the circular bar and they're doing a no-design re-design.  That is, they're just replacing the plumbing then putting a new bar in which is identical to the old bar.  I guess the more things change the more they stay the same!

Here's me in the unused part of the bar with Charlie, one of the co-owners and general all round great guy:

So what's particularly cool about this bar while it's being remodelled is that the little bar to the side is still open, and I love that, all of a sudden it feels like one of those bars popularised in 'Cheers'.

What's even cooler is that the DJ is still spinning his tunes in the old bar, which seems so very surreal.  Seeing as there's nobody in the bar!  The DJs here are always great, sometimes playing some very obscure but cool tracks, so I thought I'd give props to the DJ playing in the 'other room'.  Good job, mister.

Yep, those are flames licking up at the DJ booth.

So in as much as the new design will completely replicate the old design, I'm happy with that.  Some would say that this was a great opportunity to add a new flavour to the bar, but if it aint broken, don't fix it!

#california #losangeles #eaglela #redesignolddesign #propstothedj

Secret Pop Up Coffee Experience

May 13 2017

My mate VR has some friends that are living in the LA Arts District, the new hip up and coming area within DTLA (Downtown Los Angeles).

His friends are actually furniture designers, but once a month they hold a pop up coffee shop in the front space of their factory loft for friends and clients.

It's a secret spot, unavailable to the public without invitation, so of course I jumped at the chance to visit somewhere nobody else is allowed to go.

The spread is pretty simple: a box of donuts and pressed coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

The barista gives us a complete rundown of their coffee filtration style, origin of beans, etc. etc.

To be frank I'm a huge fan of coffee.  Drinking it, that is.  Where it comes from, where it was made, how much the growers got, it doesn't really float my bean.  It's now my drug of choice, so much so, that I could honestly drink an espresso at 1am and then hit the hay.  It seems now more than ever a lot of people have a "no coffee after 5pm" policy which I think is pretty wussy.  Each to their own, though, of course!

The coffee starts out hot but is put through a series of trendy glass beakers reminiscent of the high school science laboratory before serving.  If it were me, I probably would have heated those glass beakers with hot water first, as it seems the heat came straight out of the coffee and was lukewarm by the time it was served.

However it was free, so there's no way I'm complaining privately about the temperature of the coffee.  Only in public.

The coffee did taste pretty spectacular though, and after inspecting some of the designers' amazing furtniture out the back, and chatting with some of the other patrons, we headed out to meet up with old mate DA in Bunker Hill.

We had to walk past a million stands selling all kinds of Mexican streetfood.  Each bacon wrapped hot dog smelled better than the last, so it was an unusual, self-inflicted kind of torture.

Of course I now have bragging rights to a secret pop up coffee in experience in DTLA for which I will be forever grateful.

Rocking LA with the Brasileiro

May 8 2017

I'm staying in an airbnb and while most of the people that come along are pretty friendly, I clicked in particular with VR, a very cool guy from Brazil.

We'd been hanging out a bit, talking, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and listening to Tame Impala .. the usual stuff.  He hadn't really ventured into downtown LA by day (beyond our foreposted trip to the Japanese Village) so we thought we'd do the touristy thing and check out some of the stuff down there.

We're not technically on Route 66, but we're both rock'n'roll guys, so this seems the most likely place to get our kicks, photo-wise.

We head down to City Hall, to see whether or not it can be fought.  It can't.  But you can take a picture of yourself on the dais, so I figure I'll sum up the zeitgeist of our times: dictatorship (whether real, or imagined .. after all we live in an oligarchy, not a democracy) and strike my best pose.

The view from the top is pretty impressive.  I love that LA is all-sprawl.  There's something great about having a view of the sky from anywhere in the city.  I wonder how long it will last.  It's nice to have a city that doesn't cast shadows on every corner for miles and miles from the centre.

Next stop, the oldest street in Los Angeles: Calle Olvera ... or to the white folks, Olvera Street.  It was saved from demolition in the 1920s with the idea of turning the area into a traditional Mexican style market place.  It had been up to that time dominated by Mexican and Sicilian and Chinese populations.  The Chinese moved on to nearby present day Chinatown to make way for Union Station, our next stop.

There are some beautiful craft stalls, but I'm taken aback by the hand painted tiles.  It's a little obsession of mine.  Don't ask me why because I have no idea what that's about.

After tucking into some fish and chips in China Town, which were decidedly not very Chinese at all (I'm not so fond of Chinese food) we checked out Union Station.  I'm sure we took photos but I can't find them, so ... sorry.

On the way home though we past a beautiful old mid century building covered in the most impressive mosaics I had seen in some time ... again, the tile thing.

I think you'll understand why I loved these so much.  So much detail and colour.  What's not to love?  Still very much loving LA.

Japanese Village Take Two

May 5 2017

Frustrated with our earlier attempt to get some good Japanese food, I hike down to the Japanese Village again for sashimi, take two.  I ask DA if he wants to come and join my new roomie VR to give it another go.

On the way to the village we happen to walk past a K-Pop festival.  That's Korean POP for the uninitiated, and it's actually very cool.  A little too cool, it starts to rain.  I feel bad for the organisers, but, hey: that's life in the big city.  We had no idea it was on... the things you find when you crawl out of the cocoon, huh?  Yes, that's right!  Get off your computer.  Put down your phone.  GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!  NOW!  (after you read this, of course).

It's a little bit chilly out.  Then we turn a corner, and there's the Challenger Space Shuttle!  I'd actually seen it a few years back while in LA, being driven down the road on a very wide truck trailer.  I repeat, these are the things outside your house that you're missing because you live in a cocoon.

We found a great place to eat, the boys had Ramen and Bento, but I was hellbent on getting some raw tuna.  It went down a treat, was very reasonably priced, and we weren't ripped off like we had been the other night.  VR gives it the thumbs up!  Moving-fingers-Brazilian-style.

DA and I want to show VR the bacon donuts, but I dunno, like a lot of things, the first time is the best, and I'm just not in the mood anymore, they've lost their shine.  We do have a geezer around the village and there's some very cool things to see.

Like the reflection of this 1950s astronaut from a Japanese film in the window of a manga store:

 And some uber-cool Edo Period prints for sale in the local Japanese supermarket

Let your fish flag fly!  Then there's those frustrating vending machines where you can spend $100 buying some dumb cute plush toy that would only cost $5, except for the fact that this game is TOTALLY RIGGED!!! LOL  I mean are your kids going to be really thrilled that you bought them a plush loaf of bread?? (it's possible...)

It was a pretty fun night all in all, I got my raw fish, and I'm satisfied.

My Little Barbershop

May 3 2017

There's nothing better than the feeling of getting a new haircut, especially if your hair grows as fast as mine does.

I'd previously found a barber very close to my house, but I wasn't overly impressed.  There was always a huge line up for a haircut and most of the people were lined up for the owner of the store.  The less popular older lady cut my hair, and while she did a job that was good enough, I just wasn't that happy with it.  Also, I'm just not used to women cutting my hair.  It's not sexist.  It's that men understand men's hair better than women do.  It's a thing.

Unless you're the famed 'Man From Ironbark' from the A.B.Patterson poem.

I found another place a little further away, tucked away in Mountain View Avenue.  It turns out this guy has just opened his own shop almost a year ago.  Yes, there was still a line up, but I loved that Roberto gave a lot of attention to each customer.  He seemed to take forever with each client, which is a nuisance while you're waiting but I didn't mind as it meant he would also take a long time with me.

It had been a long, hot day, and I could feel myself struggling to keep awake in the barber chair.  The buzzing of the clippers can be quite relaxing.

However, to finish up he pulled out a cut-throat razor to finish off the job.  Funny how somebody holding a very sharp knife to your head can wake you up very, very quickly. 

Just ask 'The Man From Ironbark' about that...

#california #losangeles #la #haircut #freshfade #mylittlebarbershop #abpatterson #themanfromironbark

Bacon donuts & Hannya Masks in Little Tokyo

May 2 2017
 
If I had to choose one cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, the choice would be obvious.

I choose Japanese.

Since I was a 14 year old studying a unit of Japanese language and culture, I’ve been fascinated by this culture which was closed for so long to the western world.

Then there was the famous line from the glossy lips of Molly Ringwald in John Hughes’ seminal 1980s teen flick, The Breakfast Club:

“It’s sushi”

Technically, she was wrong.  Sushi is in fact Japanese for ‘vinegared rice’, and sashimi is the name for raw fish.  Those seaweed rolls are actually Sushi Nori, but we’ll let the Ringwald have it, for now.

I’ve been itching to get down to Little Tokyo and sample some raw fish.  DA kindly offers to accompany me, as I had introduced him to sashimi about 5 years ago, when we first met in LA.

We found a restaurant, which was in Little Tokyo, but on one of the streets just outside of the Japanese Village Plaza.  Every time somebody walked in the whole staff stopped what they were doing and yelled out a japanese greeting in unison.  (I can imagine that would get very tiresome pretty quickly).  But when they did it for us, it was fun .. because it was new ; )

The food was not really filling, and ultra expensive.  Additionally, those jerks completely overcharged us (I know, because I’d added up the cost on the menu), which really sucked.  Who wants to pay $40 for a few pieces of fish and walk away hungry?  I guess the money they could have spent on the food, they spent on staff that could stand yelling out greetings in unison, all night, every night.

Grrrrr....

Afterwards, we walked around the village, to discover that there were much better deals to be had within the plaza itself.  Next time, we vowed. 

But not before chowing down on a bacon maple donut hole.  If you can’t work out why anybody would eat a bacon donut, you don't deserve to know.

It was small, but delicious enough.  I managed to get a few snapshots of those hannya masks inside one of the stores moments before they closed!  They are the Noh Theatre masks which represent jealous female demons.  There was also a very cute cement panda which looked like it was from the 1950s on the store floor, begging to be snapped.

Next time, we’ll come back and eat twice as much for half the price …. inside the village.

On the walk back to Bunker Hill, we saw a young couple draping red material from tree to tree.  I figured they probably had lots of rolls of fabric left over from something and were using it to make street art.  I asked the couple draping the material, and they confirmed my suspicions.

Looked pretty cool, but will be surprised if it’s still here tomorrow. 

#losangeles #dtla #littletokyo #ripoff #wrongrestaurant #bacon #donuts #bacondonuts #hannakemask #chichi #storedisplay #streetart #hannya #japanesevillageplaza #la

Dine Free, Un-less Delighted

April 30 2017

Today I caught up with LD for what turned out to be a very interesting lunch.

After a few near misses, we finally parked on Broadway, admiring the incredible art deco palaces that were built in the wee hours of the cinema industry.   A time when red carpet events were seen as a big affair, and the movie palaces provided a much needed respite from the drudgery of life.  The masses had a chance to not only see their favorite stars on the silver screen but were treated to opulence every step of the way, from the magnificent post baroque / rococo interiors in the foyer through to the galleries that paved the way to the cinema itself.  The chairs may have been spartan, but the surroundings were rich, lush, opulent: nothing like the homes the masses would return to once the words ‘The End’ came up, and the velvet curtains closed.

We’d hoped to catch a daytime tour of one of the more opulent cinema houses but unfortunately had the timing all wrong … too bad!!

After taking a closer look at these broadway palaces, LD suggests we go to a rather unique place for lunch.

Clifton’s is a very old cafe which was built for the post cinema crowd.  It’s really like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

It looks like a series of grottos.  There are small grottoes with different platforms, quite small, for performing jazz bands.  The design is minimalistic in intention, to force a minimal band line up, rather than the large scale bands that were to dominate the 1940s.

There’s a small prayer grotto as well, which you access through some very windy stairs.

There’s a large restaurant and buffet which is part serviced, part serve yourself.

What’s really cool about this place are all the stuffed animals placed sporadically in dioramas.  There’s a coyote chasing an antelope, mid flight. 

Here’s a coyote with a bird stuffed in its mouth, about to return to its den in a serve yourself deli buffet all of its own.

Then there’s the classic act of altruism that this place was famous for.  Their motto was ‘Pay What You Wish… Eat Free Unless Delighted’.  This was clearly a sign of the times, an oasis in the suffering that was American life during the Great Depression.

Clearly, that’s not their policy anymore.  However the good news is that when the owner died, there was a clause that if it was to be reopened, it was to be presented in its original splendor.

So, I don’t really mind paying for the food, because I’m delighted.  Yes, by the food, but ultimately that a place like this exists, and hasn’t fallen prey to the wrecking ball.

Yet.

#california #cliftons #losangeles #broadway #opulence #luxury #altruism #taxidermy #jazz #minimal #gawdy

The Hunt For a Mid-Century Modern Sideboard

April 29 2017

As it turns out LD wants to check out an antiques fair close to downtown LA.  It's supposed to be a series of vendors selling all things 1950s and 1960s.  I suspect it's going to be a bunch of dealers (which it is) and although these places typically aren't the hotbed of amazing deals and bargains.  I thought it would definitely be worth a look because I do love that era (newsflash) and thought I might at least be able to find some cool stuff, and learn a little bit about the peculiarities that distinguish American midcentury style from Australian midcentury style.

There's not a lot of differences, but some of them are quite subtle, and as my old boss used to say: Retail is Details.  I'm all about the details so it seems like a great idea.

First LD heads over after I promise to make him coffee, and you guessed it, another trip to GOOD TIME donuts.  Sorry LD, I had no idea you didn't like flavoured coffee.  Mental note: stop buying flavoured coffee grinds from the supermarket and go for the regular stuff.  Preferably from Hawaii or something.  Because I'm DAMNED if I know where to buy LAVAZZA coffee in this city!

It's a pretty hot day, so we wander around from vendor to vendor, giving prefrence to the stalls which are in the shade.  Yeah I know, that's not where the bargains are, but who cares?  It's really hot.

We managed to find the famed Herman Miller Marshmallow Sofa so couldn't resist a photo op sitting in this famous lounge.  It doesn't have the bright colours of all of the reproduction sofas, it has an unusual palette of brown, but who cares?  It's cool, and we're sitting on it.

Even if it is brown.

On the sofa, it's a pass: that's not what we're looking for.  We're looking for a 1950s/60s sideboard that will fit in LD's 50s ranch house.  Like the wooden one at the top right of this photo.

We didn't find the right one and that's OK.  Finding vintage pieces is not like going to an online catalogue and choosing the size, shape and colour.  It's more about THE HUNT.  And as with all hunts, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  So although we didn't find the stand out piece he was looking for I really enjoyed checking out the vintage fair, getting a big eye full of collectables and memorabilia.

Winning.

Professional Karaoke Singers With Amateur Machetes

April 28 2017

My friend LD was meeting up with some of his friends at the Original Farmers Market in Fairfax.  It's been around since the early 1930s and has over 100 gourmet stalls selling all variety of cuisines.

We skipped the coffee and donuts and went for a slice of pizza.  I know, all those choices and I go for a bread and cheese, but what the heck.

We finally find his friends and they're tabled in an area with a karaoke competition going on.  It's actually pretty good as far as karaoke goes.  Particularly good are the oldies who are getting up and belting out tunes.  Not so much a series of Pat Benatar numbers by girls in their 40s.  (Don't start me, but I believe her Love Is A Battlefield was responsible for a long slew of just awful bands, led by girls who actually thought they would be the next Pat Benatar, doing the shimmy dance in front of a triangle of dancers.  The 80s <insert heavy sigh>.

After a while, something doesn't feel right.  There's a beautiful old Jewish lady in her 70s (possibly 80s) cranking out a pretty rocking tune.  She's wearing what looks like a really expensive dress, as in the type of dress an old lady would wear to the opera, sequins, beads, the whole number. If this is so random, why are the same people getting up for number after number?

We battle it out with the ridiculously loud volume in this place, trying to communicate with a bunch of people I'd just met while competing with a P.A. system that is just too, too loud.  Could be, I'm just getting older however given the number of senior citizens here, I can't imagine it's working for them, either, unless they've got their hearing aids turned way, way down.  It's loud and distorted, my voice hurts and I feel like I should be in one of those Lichtenstein paintings where planes and bombs are crashing all around.

At first what seemed so sweet, a bunch of senior citizens having their fifteen minutes of fame, it turns out that we're being had by a group of people who are desperate for attention .. in whatever way they're gonna get it.  It's most likely that these grannies and grampas are actually here every chance they get, spending their time practicing their songs in their cars, whilst driving, so that nobody can hear the REAL amateurs that they are. 

Essentially it's just like any one of those singing reality TV shows.  Semi professionals pretending to be amateurs.  It's kind of sad, really.  The truth is none of these covers will actually sound better than the original sound recordings of these songs.  Personally I'd rather much hear the original, than have some amateur hack those beautiful songs into a million bloody pieces with the machete that they call their 'voice'.  They're more similar to those singing competitions than you realise.  None of them make money doing it, none of them are creating anything new.   Sure, it's fun to get up and karaoke, especially if you've got a good ear, and can hold a tune.  But this is different.  These people are mostly professional karoake-ers with amateur machetes.

I would have taken photos to prove the point (or at least their OTT clothes) but I was in a mean mood (as if you couldn't tell).  I didn't want to give them any more attention than they deserved.  If there was a limit to how much they deserved, they had definitely already gone way, way past that.  Especially the ones that got up and sang multiple numbers.  What seemed sweet now exposed itself as being very contrived.

Afterwards, we headed through some of the strip malls that make up the market and found some very cool hollywood memorabilia.  I was particularly enchanted by these Lucille Ball, Desi Arnez and  Popeye's Olive Oyl.

Then we went out and hit the bar for a drink.  It's always great meeting new people, and this night managed to kill three birds with one stone: new friends, new experience, new location.

Our ears are both ringing from the noise, though, so let's blow this hot dog stand!