Cop getting booze

Here he is loading up his saddle bags with a bunch of bottles of wine. It's not a real cop though, he's just a movie extra.

Aussie Tasting

This was a great tasting. We started off with the 2005 Two Hands Lily's Garden, and the Bella's Garden (which was the #5 wine of the year) The Bella's was the hands down rockstar of that flight, having a fuller, rounder mid-palate, and better integration. The Lilly's came off as slightly angular by comparison, but still a delicious wine.

Then we moved on to a vertical of Amon-Ra. We did the 2002-2006! 2002 and 2005 were my favorites with the 2006 having a strong showing, but just too young. All told, the 2002 was my wine of the night. Beautiful complexity, and depth of character, with wonderful, pure concentration. The 05 had truly jumping Raspberry notes and power, and the 06 is only begining to show it's character.
Observation of the night:

"The problem with verticals, is each wine is a year older than the next." -Mike-

Almost sounds like a Yogism, but it's totally true, these wines are not on equal ground. Each one is at a different stage of development. So what though, I say, the idea is to see which wine I like best on this evening, not to forever declare a winner of the vintages.

Batman and Fabio

No pictures or video this time, cause I'm getting to be a lazy blogger now that I'm semi-settled here in LA; BUT, we went to see the latest Batman flick, which I have absolutely no problem saying I thought was awesome, and on the way, saw a Lambourghini (did I spell that right? not gonna spell check it for obvious reasons) and guess who was driving it? I shit you not, Fabio! That's right, we saw Fabio driving his whip down Sunset Blvd. Almost was cooler than the movie, except it wasn't really close, even his camp value couldn't overcome what was a very good movie. This is speaking volumes people!

Feist at the Hollywood Bowl

Trish comes through Again! This time we got hooked up with tickets and saw Feist at the Hollywood Bowl. One of the great things about the bowl, is you can bring your own picnic, and even beer and wine. Katie packed me up a dinner of ribs and corn and pineapple and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Trish brought fresh fruit, lemon sorbet, and a white Rhone Blend. Hoo-boy!

Walking back home

Making our way back down Highland Ave from the Bowl. It was amazing, it looked just like this. And oh yeah, singing puppet dogs too.

Low Rent and Kitch. Did you really think you'd escape the hipsters?

So I'm clearly behind the times here, but seeing as I'm not from LA anyway, I don't feel so bad in just coming to realize the burgeoning art scene in Chinatown. It's kinda neat actually. Interspersed between all of these "traditional" chinese restaurants and antique and medicine shops, you'll see the occasional gallery. The locals don't quite seem to know what to make of it. Like this guy...


He stood politely at the door for awhile, until I went over to him, Tecate in hand, to ask if he'd like to come in. He held up a placard listing all of his fortune telling abilities. He didn't work for beer, so I took a pass.



Yet another gallery opening, smack in the middle of a small back alley, full of Chinatown (and now hipster) goodness.


Perhaps the new location for my wine bar? Why Stem Wine Bar, when it can be Black Dragon Wu-Shu Kung Fu Society? The servers can be dressed as Ninjas!

80's Ricky Schroeder, the Patron Saint of LA's Chinatown

Of all the mysteries surrounding the artistic gentrification of LA's Chinatown, it was this one I found the most befuddling. Why are there so many images of 80's Ricky Schroeder? Was it his unforgettable performances in the sitcom Silver Spoons? We may never know. All I know is now I can't get that one fateful episode out of my head- the one where he was finally befriended by the cool kids, and found himself in a moral dilemma when forced between the two uncomfortable options: dining and ditching from the local pizza place, or losing his newfound friendship with the cool kids. Oh Ricky, don't you know being cool comes from within? If they don't accept you for your moral largess, then they're not really your friends anyway.

The conversation that never happened

These were pretty cool. Unfortunately I think I'll miss the closing party, as I have a catered affair to attend up here in Los Feliz, but I did get to catch a quick glimpse of over 100 photographs of people at a dinner table, having unknown imaginary conversations. As my sculpture teacher would ask, what is the dialogue taking place?

Rules Help Control the Fun

Lest you think I was only at the Bonelli Contemporary's latest installment merely for the free booze, a quick run down of some of the delights held within...

Neighborhood infusions. Now, if I have these correctly, they are Vodkas infused with locally found, fallen fruit from the surrounding areas. (Delightfully disgusting!) Such as Los Feliz Bitter Orange and Koreatown Kumquat. Kinda catchy to team up with 360 Vodka (What goes around comes back around) It's just stupid enough to be believable, and I bet they've got the hipsters lined up. The one thing keeping me from believing these are real is the ripped label where the swing top opens. Other than that though, why the hell not?


In the tradition of young life artwork, this watercolor on paper was very provacative. I waved back and forth on this one, myself. I couldn't quite decide how I felt about the passed out girl on the floor with her spectator's feet in the foreground, standing over her. If you double click on the image though, you can see it's a well crafted, almost pixilated image. Not sure what the has to say about the social commentary, but there we are.


This one, again, left me somewhat uncertain, but it's the little things that get me. You'll need to double click again. Guy and a girl at a table with an empties sculpture in the middle of the table, and piled on the passed out boyfriend. I do like the wistful look on the young lady, and the way her converse are perched on each other just so. In a possible homage to Escher, there are steel globes in the corner reflecting concave (Is that the right term, would it be spherical reflections?) of the others in the room, most notably the artist.

Bonelli Contemporary

These are the folks that brought you the Banana Dacquiri Seance. This first game is Bush, Bush Revolution. Much like the original game, you dance around on a dance pad, trying to get your timing down. But this time, you dance around trying to match Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Condi's heads as you stamp on them. Now that's good fun.
The ideas for the latest installment are rather simple, and as follows...

GAMES AND FREE BOOZE!

Rules Help Control the Fun

Rules Help Control the Fun celebrates the party game in all of its glorious variety. Games
have long provided a focal point for social interaction, engaging the outgoing and awkward
alike and transforming those with seemingly nothing in common into comrades, opponents,
winners, and losers. Fittingly, each game presented will therefore be paired with that other,
better-known social lubricant.

Rules Help Control the Fun is hosted in conjunction with "Party Favors," curated by Holly Myers for Bonelli Contemporary, Los Angeles.

1pm
Pictionary
Cheap wine
Without being overly meta, we will aim to create a competitive
environment that may or may not result in the creation of art.

2pm
Video Games
Beer
Experience the wonderful world of multimedia gaming through the ages,
from Atari to the DVD game Scene It to the Xbox game Rock Band.

3pm
Pit
The most appropriate substance for a
commodity trading game, sadly, is BYO
Get your shout on!

3:30pm
Celebrity
Cocktails & Mixed Drinks

Also known as the Name Game, this is perhaps the perfect party game,
premised on shared knowledge and combining obscure references,
performance skills, improvisation, strategy, and trash-talk. (Per usual
for Angelenos, the concept of "celebrity" will remain a fluid one.) We will
play the dreaded three-round version (standard clues; one-word clues;
charade clues). Celebrity War and Celebrity Sex War, two highly intuitive
variations, will likely follow.

Yiddish Grandma Beauty Contest 1982

We went to a "Noah's Bagels" here in LA. The place is plastered in all sorts of NY memorabilia including, a fake subway map. Why wouldn't they just go and get one from any subway stop? They're free! But anyway they didn't. Among the photos of Dodgers Stadium and the like, they had a picture of The Yiddish Grandma Beauty Contest 1982. Here it is, the results were inconclusive though...

Daniel and his Bike.

My buddy, Daniel, from Brooklyn, was in a motorcycle accident about a month back. Coming down La Cienega, some lady didn't see him coming and turned right into him. As he described it later, he had two options, under, or over. He could hit the brakes and quite possibly slide under the car, or just hit it, and go over. The paramedics estimate he flew about 30 to 35 feet, which maybe as motorcycle accidents go, isn't such a big deal, but it sounds pretty scary to me. He banged up his leg pretty badly, went through some serious surgery on his knee, and broke some toes, but all in all, considers himself pretty lucky. I helped him run some errands yesterday, which also involved seeing his bike at the Police tow yard for the first time since the accident. It was pretty emotional, he got the bike in Europe, and took it all over Israel; and now he's not sure it'll be financially sound to repair it. But he's maintaining good spirits, partially aided by croissants stuffed with donuts.

Local Color

So this is an interesting one...
I walked down to the local 7-11 to get some beers for the house. There were only two guys in the store, one guy standing behind the counter, and one in front of it; both Middle Eastern, both wearing the same color red shirt (7-11 red). I began to step in front of the guy near the counter, to place my beer down, (he wasn't standing right in front of the counter, by the way, but a little bit back from it) when I realized he had some items on the counter he was purchasing. I stepped back, when I realized he was a customer, and not an employee, and said, "I'm sorry, same color shirt." He purchased his items, and afterwards, on his way out, turned to me and said, "Yeah, same color, huh?"
After paying and walking out, seeing him in the parking lot, while he was checking his phone, I said, "You know, you guys really are wearing the same color shirt, it was an honest mistake."
(Because really, who hasn't been mistaken for an employee before- "Where's the canned corn?" "Hell if I know, got any idea where the olive oil is?")
But his response was, "You'll always see us as employees or terrorists."
He caught me off guard for a second, and then I said, "You who? Us White guys? Isn't that just as much an assumption about me, as I made when I came in? And what's wrong with working at 7-11 anyway?"
He was an intelligent guy, and after some minutes of awkwardness, and a little bit of dialogue, we walked up Vermont Avenue together, and talked about it. Even sat on his front step with his roommate (A Chinese Guy, smoking a cigarette out front) where I offered them both a beer, and we all three talked for a few minutes. We had both made assumptions on color. Mine, on a shirt and what his job might be, his, on my race, and what my assumptions might be, and in the end, a lot of assumptions which didn't really pan out. But the thing is, we all do this, as humans, with everything. So, in the end, is there something to be learned from this, by all of us? Aren't we all guilty of being humans and making assumptions?
I assumed he was an employee, he assumed I'm a racist, and all of this is a whole bunch of assuming. I'm glad we had the time to talk. I'm glad this country is a place where people of all nationalities can live. I don't want to hammer this thing home too far, but I think we could all use a little bit of tolerance in our pursuit of tolerance. Because we really are all in this thing together.

The Cork and Demon: White wine whiners, please wise up

Just found a new favorite blog. Unfortunately, this girl hasn't posted in awhile, but some definitely funny stuff...

The Cork and Demon: White wine whiners, please wise up

Spaceland again on Friday Night

We went to Spaceland again last night, where Parlor Mob opened for Albert Hammond Jr. (the guitarist for the Strokes) Parlor Mob did a great job and were just as impressive as that rooftop show Trish took me to on Sunset a month or so back. Check them out, http://www.myspace.com/theparlormob

Stories at Spaceland (Thursday Night)

After Echoplex, we dropped Trish off and went to Spaceland. There was even music too!



This was kind of cool. They handed out pots and pans and other instruments of clang to some of their fans, who banged along.

View of Downtown LA from Trish's living room

Trish and Charles have a great place in the hills above Silverlake with an unreal view of Downtown LA...

Tilly and the Wall

So, Trish to the rescue again! We met up with her friend Sarah, had dinner at a good local place called 15, had a mediocre bottle of Cali Cab (my fault, I picked it out) a tuna tartare app that should have been good, but was totally overloaded with truffle oil (WHY?) My Pork Loin medallions were yummy, Trish's Short ribs were very tasty, and Sarah's Seared scallops were damned good. Then off to Echoplex to hear Tilly & the Wall, who according to Stephen Gossett of Flavorpill magazine, "Despite two albums of joyous indie pop, Omaha's Tilly & the Wall will likely always be known as "that band with a tap dancer instead of a drummer" — although, if you didn't know otherwise, you'd swear it was a Phil Spector mix of timpani and castanets." and, "between the boundless enthusiasm and mass of glockenspiel, brass, and strings, few can match Tilly's whimsical take on personal heartache and euphoric live show. "

Bouncing Nachos

Once upon a time, there was a club, and in that club there was a couch, a black bouncy couch. And on that bouncy couch, there stood a bouncy girl in shiny 80's Nike high tops. Also on that couch was a plate of nachos. Every time the bouncy girl bounced on the bouncy couch, the nachos would bounce too. And then somebody ate one.
The End

Route 66

I was driving around on Santa Monica the other day, or should I say, sitting in traffic, when I looked up and saw this sign for the old Route 66. It got me to thinking, I'm not really traveling anymore. I'm pretty much living here in LA, sorta. I don't have a job yet, but that kind of makes the whole LA experience that much more authentic.

Does this '91 Toyota Corolla really need a spoiler?

LA is a funny town, it's filled with an almost Frankenstein effect of stitched together cars, bodies, and lives. I'm not against it exactly, I'm just kind of intrigued by it.

Indoor Skydiving

Erica's friend Radio works at City Walk of Universal Studios and he got us into their IFly, or indoor Skydiving. Basically, it's a giant, clear plexiglass, vertical wind tunnel. You put on a special suit, goggles and a helmet; and after a four minute video and quick tutorial, you get to go in and fly.

This is me, in the red, dropping about 40 vertical feet and then floating back up. It was pretty cool!


Some more floating around.

WTF?

Apparently, Wolfgang Puck has joined up with Chuck E Cheese.

Walkin the carpet

Hopped the velvet rope and got three quarters of the way down the carpet before they figured I wasn't all that special. Although I did get special treatment from security, who ushered me out, with one guy on each arm. I felt so important!

Portrait of Jared

I've gotten to know some of the people around Los Feliz, mostly from taking lots of walks with Blue. There's a very fashionable and interesting woman who lives out in front of a closed up Masonic Lodge, named Joyce. She's an artist of sorts, and I've bought some of her work in the past for $2 each. Joyce asked me about a week ago if she could do my portrait. Yesterday, I sat down and modeled for her. Outside of the vaguely Asian eyes and the Pseudo Buddhist halo, I think it's a pretty good representation.

Fun games for the drive up to Solvang

To celebrate our independence, we decided to all go up past Santa Barbara to do some wine tasting. Katie made fun gift bags for everybody complete with water, interesting celebrity articles, pirate patches, and a "guess who's boobs" game. The boob game involved a headless boob shot, and we were summoned to guess who they belonged to... Answer: Tyra Banks!

Justin's Thumb Trick

"Survival tips for the Big House" by Katie Spencer Milgrim

This might be you one day. Ignore her words at your own peril.


Justin enacting the terrified guard.

The Height of Cherohonkee

I was blissfully unaware of the term "Cherohonkee" or perhaps "Cherohonky". It's used to describe those wolf t-shirts, and the "back to nature while munching on a twinkee" fads one might see. Katie found this one: inviting us to "Uncover Your Fantasy with True Essence Photos by Eva". I guess Glamour Shots by Deb didn't quite cut it. Anyhoo, the best part is the little flap exposing her butt. Yee-Haw!

Justin explaining the events of the previous night

On our way out of Solvang, at about 9 at night, we had a shower of rocks come flying at the car while we were driving down Main Street. J quickly pulled over and jumped out of the car, sprinting back towards the obvious group of kids that'd done it. Fearing the notorious "Valet" temper brandished on occasion by Brooklynites, I ran after him just to make sure no limbs were unduly separated from their host bodies. When all was said and done, there may have been a little shirt grabbing, but no one was harmed, and I know of one group of kids that won't be chucking any rocks at cars anytime soon.

Ryan and Allison on the super slide

Allison wounded herself on the dangerous, dirty, smelly, slide. I guess that's what she gets for shoving all those little kids out of the way...

Wildfires

I think these are linked to the blazes up by Big Sur, they've been burning for a while now, and have proved to be very difficult to contain. These shots are from the 101 while on our way back to LA.

Tastes of the Valley

We got up to the town of Solvang sometime around noon on Friday. Checked out a couple of local tasting rooms in Los Olivos, although many were closed for the fireworks that ended up being cancelled due to the fires. Once back in Solvang, we stopped in on my buddy Eric, who mans the tasting bar at Tastes of the Valley, which is definitely the spot to stop in on in Solang. Tell him I sent ya.

Chilling out in the limo

So we got a limo to take us around from vineyard to vineyard rather than mess around with all the driving. It was pretty nice. We started at Fiddlehead for some really nice Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Then stopped in on Palmina for their great Arneis, Pinot Grigio, Dolcetto, Barbera. Justin and Katie joined the wine club. Next was Starlane, Foley, and a last stop at a place not worth mentioning.

Pea Soup Andersen's

For our last meal before leaving, Justin kept pushing for Pea Soup Andersen's. As usual, he had a plan in mind. No it wasn't the burgers, Pickled Herring, or even famed Pea Soup he was after- He just wanted to stick his butt in the cut out picture..