Los Angeles is one of the largest cities in the country.
I set out this beautiful Sunday morning to stroll upon unquestionably it’s shortest street,
Powers Place.
And stroll I did. It took me 6 seconds to walk it’s 13 feet.
Sun 12 May 2013
Shortest Street In Los Angeles.
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Sun 17 Mar 2013
After tasting over 40 beers…then I see THIS
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Coming off of the AHA rally at Stone and then White Labs on Saturday, this food truck at a San Diego brewery made me start questioning my sanity as I waited for my food. Instead of a tip, someone ought to get them a freekin’ dictionary. They seem to need one.
They had words plastered all over their truck…except, they seemed not to have proofread anything (or more frightening, perhaps they HAD?) Oh boy.
Here were some of my favorites. 
Tue 12 Mar 2013
How Even Walking A Few Blocks Can Help Out The Neighborhood
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I was dropped off a few blocks from where I live today by a co-worker this evening. I found the chain of events this evening somewhat edifying.
If I was driving in my car…(since it’s too hot to cook) I would have likely gone through a drive-thru of some large multinational food company and ordered something then perhaps filled up the car at the station of one of the large multinational petroleum companies who are always saying how awesome they are for the environment, jobs and our future. The money I spent would largely had been shipped off to some anonymous corporate headquarters somewhere.
However, tonight I walked home. Passed by a bottle shop and picked up two. (Local business, money stays in town), then being hungry…sauntered by a few places until I saw a woman on the street selling tamales, I ordered two (I think it’s reasonable to assume that that money is staying right here…maybe even being spent at the local market to buy more supplies for tomorrow’s tamales). Passed by an independent bookstore…grabbed something off the $1 rack (sure it’s not a lot, but that $1 may just stay local if only to help pay the light bill or the gas). Crossing the intersection, I realize I need to get supplies from one store in my path and spontaneously decide to get a coffee to go from the place next to it (no, not a Starbucks).
So what is that??? FIVE businesses I spent money at solely because I happened to be walking.
That may not be a big thing to many people, but in Los Angeles walking is still somewhat of a radical act. However, being defiant is always easier when your car is in the shop of course. Still, if more people did it, more frequently…the city might be a healthier place to live.
Oh, one other thing. Walking home allowed me to walk beside a homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk just 2 blocks from where I live. That’s something else that car riders miss as well. The only thing drivers seem to notice are pretty people and traffic lights (and sometimes not even that).
Mon 4 Feb 2013
A Few Hours In Bako
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OK, here are a some photos from a few hours spent in Bakersfield.
We went to the two last-remaining honky-tonks, ate a two hour 5-course dinner in the Basque section of town, saw some old buildings, visited an amazing guitar store (well to me anyway), ate at an ice cream parlor well over 100 years old, stayed at a fancy pants hotel that was supposedly the most haunted hotel in town, drank at the 70 year old bar where Merle Haggard used to play when he was starting out. It’s all very random.
As usual, click the photo to get to to the album and then take it from there.
Sun 23 Dec 2012
Survival Research Labs in Los Angeles
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Tue 18 Dec 2012
Fave Movies of 2012
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Long ago Hollywood gave up on grown ups so long ago I correspondingly, I gave up on Hollywood. However there are good films still to be found…but they won’t come to you, rather you have to seek them out. 2012 was no time to be a passive cinephile. If you do nothing you will be fed a straight diet of comic book films designed for 13 year-old boys.
The following is a list of movies I found an antidote to that kind of cultural poison.
In no particular order—films I liked and films I might like.
Films I Liked
This Is Not A Film [Panahi/Mirtahmasb, Iran]
Tabu [Miguel Gomez, Portugal]
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry [Alison Klayman, US]
Oslo, August 31 [Joachim Trier, Norway]
Amour [Michael Haneke, France]
Miss Bala [Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico]
The Day He Arrives [Hong Sang-soo, Korea]
Goodbye First Love [Mia Hansen-Love, France]
Kid With A Bike [Dardennes Bros, Belgium]
Attenberg [Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece]
Moonrise Kingdom [Wes Anderson, US]
Holy Motors [Leos Carax, France]
The Raid: Redemption [Gareth Evans, Indonesia]
Elena [Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia]
The Deep Blue Sea [Terence Davies, UK]
The Turin Horse [Béla Tarr, Hungary]
Leviathan [Lucien Castaing Taylor, France]
Something In The Air [Olivier Assayas, France]
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia [Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey]
Alps [Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece]
Killer Joe [William Friedkin, US]
Films I Might Like Which I Still Have To See
Cosmopolis [David Cronenberg, Canada]
The Loneliest Planet [Julia Loktev, US/Germany]
Rust & Bone [Jacques Audiard, France]
The Imposter [Bart Layton, UK]
In Another Country [Hong Sang-soo, Korea]
Beasts Of The Southern Wild [Benh Zeitlin, US]
The Gatekeepers [Dror Moreh, Israel]
Barbara [Christian Petzold, Germany]
Zero Dark Thirty [Kathryn Bigelow, US]
The Master [Paul Thomas Anderson, US]
The Color Wheel [Alex Ross Perry, US]
The House I Live In [Eugene Jarecki, US}
Berberian Sound System [Peter Strickland, UK]
Almayer’s Folly [Chantal Akerman, France/Belgium]
Looper [Rian Johnson, US]
Reality [Matteo Garrone, Italy]
Room 237 [Rodney Ascher, US]
Searching For Sugarman [Malik Bendjelloul, Sweden/UK]
Pieta [Ki-duk Kim, Korea]
Paradise: Faith [Ulrich Seidl, Germany]
Paradise: Love [Ulrich Seidl, Germany]
Neighbouring Sounds [Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil]
Wed 28 Nov 2012
It’s that time of year again.
The time of year where I reflect on all the bullshit I listened to which was created in the year 2012 of our common era. It’s neither complete nor comprehensive but just a bunch of music that’s been in rotation on the iPod this year. I guess you could say that it is my rough order of appreciation.
If I had the time (which I don’t) I would make a big interactive playlist of it all…but that will have to wait for another lifetime. However, for now…
1) Scott Walker Bish Bosch
2) Om Advaitic Songs
3) Godspeed You! Black Emperor ’Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
4) Neneh Cherry & The Thing The Cherry Thing/The Cherry Thing remixes
5) Jon Porras Black Mesa
6) Redd Kross Researching The Blues
7) Necessary Galgeberg/Gimli
8) Raime Quarter Turns Over A Living Line
9) Broken Water Tempest
10) Bong Mana-Yood-Sushai
11) Deerhoof Breakup Song
12) Killing Joke MMXII
13) The Fresh & Onlys Long Slow Dance
14) Spencer P. Jones and the Nothing Butts Spencer P. Jones and the Nothing Butts
15) Ty Segall Slaughterhouse/Twins
16) UV Race Racism
17) Demdike Stare Elemental
18) Getatchew Mekuria + The Ex Y’Anbessaw Tezeta
19) Dirty Three Toward The Low Sun
20) High On Fire De Vermis Mysteriis
21) Swans The Seer
22) Aidan Baker Closure Axioms/Plague Of Fantasies/The Spectrum Of Distraction
23) Andy Stott Luxury Problems
24)Valley Of Fear Valley Of Fear ep
25) JK Flesh Posthuman
26) The Blood Of Heroes The Waking Nightmare
27) The Gaslamp Killer Breakthrough
28) Roy Montgomery Music From The Film “Hey Badfinger!”
29) Moon Duo Circles
30) Jessica Bailiff At the Down-Turned Jagged Rim of the Sky
31) Evan Caminiti Dreamless Sleep
32) Burnt Friedman Bokoboko
33) Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras & The Congos Icon Give Thank & Icon Eye
34) Ufomammut Oro: Opus Primum
35) Mrs. Magician Strange Heaven
36) The Intelligence Everybody’s Got It Easy
37) Indian Jewelry Peel It
38) Aesop Rock Skelathon
39) Holograms Holograms
40) El-P Cancer For Cure
41) Thee Oh Sees Putrifiers II
42) Blasted Canyons 2nd Place
43) Alexander Tucker Third Mouth
44) Metz Metz
45) Future Of The Left The Plot Against Common Sense/Man Vs. Melody
46) Wymond Miles Under The Pale Moon
47) Royal Baths Better Luck Next Time
48) Dunes Noctiluna
49) Pop. 1280 The Horror
50) Bailter Space Strobosphere
51) Emeralds Just To Feel Anything
52) Fennesz Aun
53)Lilacs & Champagne Lilacs & Champagne
54) Suum Cuique Ascetic Ideals
55) White Hills Frying On This Rock
56) James Blackshaw Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death/O True Believers
57) Japandroids Celebration Rock
58) Beach House Bloom
59) Lotus Plaza Spooky Action At A Distance
60) Deep Time Deep Time
61) DIIV Oshin
62) Jonas Reinhardt Foam Fangs ep
63) Lee Ranaldo Between The Tides & The Times
64) Chris Cohen Overgrown Path
65) Mark Stewart The Politics Of Envy/Exorcism Of Envy
66) The Men Open Your Heart
67) Mission Of Burma Unsound
68) Ex-Cult Ex-Cult
69) Dan Sartain Too Tough To Love
70) Amadou & Mariam Follia
71) Monolake Ghosts
72) Old Apparatus Derren ep/Realize ep/Alfur ep
73) Mirroring Foreign Body
74) Earth Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
75) KTL V
76) Six Organs Of Admittance Ascent
77) Eyvind Kang The Narrow Garden
78) Keiko Haino, Jim O’Rourke & Oren Ambarchi Imikuzushi
79) Julia Holter Exstasis
80) Four Tet Pink
81) Actress R.I.P.
82) Cheap Time Wallpaper Music
83) The Evens The Odds
84) Pinback Information Retrieved
85) Oneida A List Of Burning Mountains
86) Eternal Tapestry Dawn In 2 Dimensions/Prometheus Rising
87) Vestals Forever Falling Toward The Sky
88) Carter/Tutti/Void Transverse
89) Hanged Up & Tony Conrad Transit Of Venus
90) Philip Sanderson Hollow Gravity
91) The Orb & Lee “Scratch” Perry The Orbserver in the Star House
92) Black Dice Mr. Impossible
93) High Wolf Know Thyself
94) Adrian Sherwood Survival & Resistance
95) Expo ‘70 Journey Through Astral Projection/Hovering Resonance/Beguiled Entropy
96) Fabulous Diamonds Commercial Music
97) Meshuggah Koloss
98) Bang On A Can Big Beautiful Dark and Scary
99) Magic Trick Ruler Of The Night
100) Terry Malts Killing Time
101) Bob Mould Silver Age
102) A Place To Bury Strangers Worship/Onwards To The Wall
103) School Of Seven Bells Ghostory
104) Radar Eyes Radar Eyes
105) Outer Minds Outer Minds
106) Charles Gayle Trio Circles
107) Sebadoh Secret ep
108) Bad Brains Into The Future
109) Melvins The Birds And The Bees/Freak Puke
110) Ty Segall & White Fence Hair
111) White Fence Family Perfume Vol. 2
112) Maserati Maserati VII
113) Times New Viking Over And Over ep
114) Sir Richard Bishop The Unrock Tapes
115) Josef Von Wissem & Jim Jarmusch The Mystery Of Heaven
116) Buke And Gase Function Falls
117) Gallon Drunk The Road Gets Darker
118) Savage Republic Varvakios
119) Calexico Algiers
120) Slug Guts Playin’ in Time with the Deadbeat
121) Saint Vitus Lillie: F-56
122) Grass Widow Internal Logic
123) Gravenhurst The Ghost In Daylight
124) Zelienople The World Is A House
125) Starving Weirdos Land Lines
126) Mugstar Axis
127) Windy & Carl We Will Always Be
128) Dans Les Arbres Canopée
129) Troum Grote Mandrenke
130) Oren Ambarchi & Robin Fox Connected
131) Richard Youngs Core To The Brave
132) Sun Araw Band V Formatting Formants: Adelaide 2012
133) Bob Mazurek Pulsar Quartet Stellar Pulsations
134) Weasel Walter/Mary Halvorson/Peter Evens Mechanical Malfunction
135) Josephine Foster Blood Rushing
136) Off! Off!
137) The Mountain Goats Transcendental Youth
138) The Soft Pack Strapped
139) Pelican Ataraxia/Taraxis
140) Gojira L’Enfant Sauvage
141) Ich bin N!ntendo & Mats Gustaffson Ich bin N!ntendo & Mats Gustaffson
142) Nachtmystium Silencing Machine
143) Killer Mike R.A.P. Music
144) Kid Koala 12-Bit Blues
145) Andre Williams & The Sadies Night And Day/Life
146) Flying Lotus Until The Quiet Comes
147) Cooly G Playin’ Me
148) Nadja Dagdrøm
149) Wild Nothing Nocturne
150) Talk Normal Sunshine
151) Lorn Ask The Dust
152) Unsane Wreck
153) The Feeling Of Love Dissolve Me
154) Ahleuchatistas Heads Full Of Poison
155) The Soft Moon Zeros
156) Jah Wobble & Keith Levene Yin & Yang
157) Torche Harmonicraft
158) The Mallard Yes On Blood
159)Balmorhea Stranger
160) Duane Pitre Feel Free
Sun 28 Oct 2012
A Hot Time In Boyle Heights
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I never heed warnings:
Toreados = 3 varieties of hot chiles and then habenero sauce dumped all over it. This was the first taco I couldn’t finish from Guisados. I got through maybe a third of it before the gringo in me took control.
Perhaps the hottest thing I’ve ever eaten.
Thu 18 Oct 2012
From The Land Down Under
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