Doing ... The Eagle Rock

March 30 2017

I met with my new friend LD today in Glendale to have lunch at his favourite cafe, Bon Vivant.  LD knew the proprietor so she even gave us a discount which was cool.  The food was very good, I ordered a morrocan lamb sandwich with mango, although I probably should've gone with the half sandwich as it was huge.  The owner was pretty happy I liked it because she was considering taking it off the menu.

Later we went back to his house in Eagle Rock.  It's a very nice 1950s house.  He knows that I'm more than a little obsessed with everything mid-century so we went back to his house for cocktails before going to dinner that night.  Naturally as I don't drink the only cocktail I had was coffee with milk. 

This happy snap is from outside his home, which has a great view, and is leafier than you'd expect for something this close to the city.  I'm probably smiling because I really, really, love coffee.

Later that night we ate at the famous Casito del Campo restaurant nearby.  This one has a great story.

The original owner, Rudy Del Campo, was a dancer.  He appeared in three major motion pictures.  A Star Is Born, Stars & Stripes Forever, and West Side Story.  In West Side Story he is a gangmember of The Sharks, a New York gang of Puerto Rican immigrants fighting for their turf.  Like a flash mob they break into dance,  except it's not to house music, it's to Leonard Bernstein's amazing minimal jazz soundtrack. Sadly, Rudy died in 2003, but his second wife Nina has been running the restaurant since 2012.

Overall a great day .. here I am trying to get an Uber home after eating way too much Mexican food.

And yes, it's the twelve millionth picture of me nearly closing my eyes whilst taking a pic.

#california #losangeles #LA #casitodelcampo #westsidestory #mexicanfood #uber #somanypicturesofmewithmyeyesclosed #photophobia #travel #solotravel #friends

Shochu've never been here before?

March 29 2017

Now I couldn't say this for all of my friends, but sometimes you make a connection with a friend that is so tight, you can say "any friend of yours is a friend of mine".

And so it is with my friend MR in NYC.  He used to work for many years in LA and he told me that he must hook me up with his good friend N who lives on the West Coast.

We catch up on the phone and as I'm staying quite close to KoreaTown, or K-Town as the locals like to call it, we set up a date.

She recommends DAN SUNG SA.  It's more of a tavern than a restaurant, but it serves Shochu alongside various bar 'snacks'.

What a great night!  The bar looks pretty unassuming from the outside, but step inside and it's all about the wood!  There's a central circular bar surrounded by wooden booths.  Inside the booth it's covered in graffiti.

I leave it up to N to order: she's been here before, and who am I to knock back local knowledge? 

I broke my no alcohol rule and had a shot of sochu with N.   The food was amazing but that small amount of booze was enough for me to forget what kind of dishes there were.  There were a lot.  And it was such a great night.  As my friend MR says, N is a 'hoot'.

Nothing beats being in a new city more than eating great food with a new friend.

I leave the carpark in my car, and start driving on the left hand side of the road... damn you Shochu!!!

#dansungsa #california #losangeles #LA #shochu #koreatown #ktown #newfriends #anyfriendofyoursisafriendofmine #barsnacks #drivingonthewrongsideoftheroad #travel #solotravel

Smoke On The Freeway

March 28, 2017

Growing up watching American films, TV, and news gives different people different impressions about what it's like driving on Los Angeles freeways.  Some of the things I've heard include:

Its a giant carpark!

or

You're going to get shot just driving down the freeway.

The former may be true for most people some of the time.  The latter is so ridiculous that you would have to be the unluckiest person on earth for that to happen.  It would be like if an earthquake hit and your luck was so terrible that you just happened to be the poor sap that was driving under a freeway overpass when it collapsed onto your car.

Personally, I think luck is just a question of timing and persistence.

Yet today the luckiest / funniest thing happened to me on the 101 freeway.

It was pretty hot, and so I took off my tshirt while I was driving.  I'm not really a huge fan of air conditioning and was happy to feel the breeze on my skin.

The freeway did its little 'carpark' thing, and traffic screeched (slowly) to a halt.

There's a passenger to my left in his car, laughing, and laughing, while pointing at me.  Usually I'd not engage but I felt this guy seemed to be pretty harmless, even if he did look like a much younger version of boxing promoter Don King.

"What are you laughing at?"  I asked him.

He didn't answer, and just kept laughing, then he offered me a little pharmaceutical container with what was presumably weed in it.

"You want some kush?" he replied.

"Uhh ... No ..., I'm good" I lied.  I just wasn't in the mood to explain that one away, in the event everything turned pear-shaped on me.

I don't think this happens often on the freeway, but yes, I just had some guy offer me some of his pot from his car window on the freeway.

Only in L.A.

#california #losangeles #la #freeway #onegiantcarpark #kush #pearshaped #laughter #smoke #ijustgotofferedweedonthefreeway #isaidno #donkingsson #shirtlessdriving #travel #solotravel

Makin' the Bacon

March 27 2017

In my search to eat at as many vintage diners in Los Angeles before they get taken down, I stumbled upon this gem, near Chinatown, but on the 'wrong' side of the tracks.

Nick's Cafe started in 1946 with two navy buddies, became kind of famous for its ham, and was known unofficially by locals as the House of Ham.

That would explain the large pink pig stationed outside with the words OPEN on it.

I did a stock standard bacon and eggs.  Being an Aussie in the USA, life is pretty similar to the way it is back home but sometimes you just want crunchy pork and runny eggs.  The food was great even if this crappy picture I took shows half of it is gone.  The waiter was super cool and her best friend had just moved back to the Australian Gold Coast so we had a nice chat.

Not sure if you can see by these pictures but there was a very cool collection of hand drawn pigs on napkins surrounding the area inside the bar.

Another one struck off the list, however, I have the feeling I'm coming back here.

#california #losangeles #la #thisonesforlana #vintagediners #retrodiners #nicks #lifewithoutporkisnotalife #baconandeggs #breaky #brekky #napkinart #thehouseofham #thewrongsideofthetracks #travel #solotravel

City of the Century

March 26, 2017

Made it to Century City for an informal coffee / meet and greet with a friend I'd met in New York a few years ago.  Felt very important with my pass as I made it seamlessly through the gates of the 20th Century Fox lot.

Loved this wall mural from the technicolor classic 'Some Like It Hot', so got a quick snap in before my meeting.

The meeting went great, went back to my car, changed back into my t-shirt (I'm not really comfortable in long sleeve shirts) and as I drove up the carpark ramp somehow managed to spill the coffee I hadn't finished all down my tshirt.

Such a GREAT look!

Not even 5 minutes later my friend calls me up to meet with another Creative Director for one of their sister channels, asking if I'd already left the lot and could come back for another meeting?

Sure, no problem.

I am so grateful I changed into that damned tshirt ... turning up to that second meeting with coffee spilt all over myself could have been ... ummm... endearing??

Regardless of where that meeting goes (and let's face it, I hope it turns out how I want it to) I was really happy to check out the backlot of the monumental studio, that nearly faced bankruptcy until Shirley Temple turned their fortunes around.

#california #losangeles #boulevardeofbrokendreams #studiolot #backlot #nousecryingoverspiltcoffee #twentiethcenturyfox #20thcenturyfox #21stcenturyfox #somelikeithot #shirleytemple #bankruptcy #endearing #travel #solotravel

A Star Is Worn

March 25, 2017

Managed to catch up with AW, a colleague I worked with for over 15 years this afternoon.

We caught up in a cute little cafe with wonky wooden tables on the pavement, and chatted about 'the biz' over coffee.

He works with the Australians In Film organisation, and although my 'biz' is TV, not film, he kindly invited me to one of their screenings at Raleigh Studios for the much anticipated premium series "The Handsmaid's Tale", starring Elisabeth Moss & up and coming Aussie actor Yvonne Strahovski.

It was kind of early so we went to the AIF office at Raleigh.  To my surprise they were actually holed up in Charlie Chaplin's bungalow!!  So cool, walking around The Little Hobo's office, probably the source of much misalignment and inspiration.  I just couldn't help but imagine him practising his famous hobble from one end of the bungalow to the other.

I would've taken a picture inside but didn't want to seem like some crazed selfie obsessed teenager.  Even if that would be a fair judgment from an outsider.  One soft drink later (I couldn't resist using Chaplin's restroom) we moseyed on down to the screening room.  I loved the advance screening, such a dark concept from acclaimed Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, so beautifully shot.  The casting and acting were above superlatives. It was just the first episode so I'm definitely taking a mental note to see the rest.

They had Aussie style meat pies ... so GREAT!  I did my weird little thing where I tear the top off the pie, mix the meat with tomato sauce and put the lid back on.  I mean, what's the point of putting the sauce on top of the pastry and have it go all soggy, and not even mix with the meat??  Also, this is the only food I will ever put tomato sauce on (or ketchup for my American friends).   Well, except for hamburgers I guess...

Raleigh Studios is one of Hollywood's oldest studios.  It dates back to 1915, and for some strange reason never became a household name, unlike the Paramount studios across the road, built some ten years later.

Interestingly this was the studio that would produce "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", the tinseltown classic addressing the issues of what happens to Hollywood's female stars once the greasepaint just won't cover up those wrinkles anymore, and the main impetus in the recent hit for FX networks' Feud: Bette & Joan.

#california #losangeles #thewarneidentity #raleighstudios #charliechaplin #thehandmaidstale #noketchup #whateverhappenedtobabyjane #feudbetteandjoan #meatpies #aussiecuisine #australiansinfilm #yvonnestrahovski #paramountstudios

Searching for Old Mexico

March 24 2017

Some of my new LA friends invited me to a day party at their house.

It was very low key, twenty or so people.  It's in a really lovely house in Silver Lake.  I'd been warned that there's no street parking for non residents so I parked a few blocks away.  Had to laugh, a neighbour came out onto the street just as I was entering my friend's house and asked if I had parked in the street.  No, I didn't.  Yes, I'd already been warned.  No, there's no problem that you asked me.  If it was my street I'd probably ask a stranger the same thing.

The birthday party was a great mix of people.  Nobody got out of control (that I was aware of) and it was a really pleasant afternoon.  With an assortment of really delicious cakes.

I photographed this piece of art in the garden, which I particularly loved.   The United States and Mexico, on the same sphere, with a line through it.  Squint your eyes and both sides really look very much the same. 

Despite all the talk of walls, protectionism, racism etc. etc. yawn, yawn, there is one inescapable, and hard-to-forget fact about California.

It used to be Old Mexico.

#california #losangeles #silverlake #backyardparty #newfriends #cake #gardenart #itusedtobeoldmexico #travel #solotravel