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LA on the cheap-volume 1

Sometimes LA is about finding unique experiences, I don't think you can find a more unique experience than seeing an event at Machine Project on Sunset and Alvarado. It is a creative and interactive gallery space that has performance art, installations, music, poetry readings and I hear that they once turned the space into a living forest.

Events are Freee!, but it would be nice if you donated something. They have a vacuum tube donation machine, that is fun to watch if it isn't dark.

From there you can ruminate about your experience three blocks away at El Prado, which I think is one of the cheapest places I have seen to get a glass of wine or crazy named beer since I moved here. No wine was over $8 and no beer over $7. It is all up to you how lushy you want to get, or not lushy at all, by choosing chocolate dipped strawberries ($6) or anything off of their ever changing menu.

My Malbec was $6

Take a date have a night of it and it is even conveniently located on the 2/302 line.

Total evening can cost you $7.50.

I'm in love w/ a blogger

So, I have had this crush on this blog and I am not afraid to admit it. It is sweet, informational, quenches my fix for beauty tips, socially responsible and make me hungry all at the same time.

Stop reading and do not pass go to directly to Oranges and Avocados

Also, farmers marketing is really inexpensive and you can take your basket of goodies home and read her blog and cook and sit on the couch in bliss of having a really great meal.

I know I have.

economic woes

Not to long ago I was just like you, looking for a job, writing resumes, crossing my fingers. Four and a half months and over 100 submissions later I finally got a job. I know many of you have gone longer and are still out there looking.

I remember when I moved here and I was unemployed for a month and a half. It was hard and it really made me doubt my decision to move here. LA is a hard city to afford, that is if you do not live beyond your means.

I remember the two jobs I had in a month and a half.

The first was writing an eviction letter for an Iranian tailor and teaching the wife and sister how to use mail merge while their Yorkie sat at my feet and they all chain smoked.

The second one I was tricked into wearing a "not to be mentioned" sportswear companies new dance line and parade around in front of UCLA students. Maybe it was called "gypsy dance of a thousand nights". I still have the bell-bottomed burgandy and neon pink spandex pants, bell-sleeved crop top and shoes as a reminder of how far I have come. (The girl who worked with me returned the clothes to the store for $200)

I think that the one thing I forgot to do my second time around being unemployed in LA was enjoy not having anywhere to be. I never went to the beach, I never sat a coffee shop and read (I couldn't find the non-starbucks coffee shops until lately) I never ventured to Chinatown to have cheap dim sum. I felt so very connected to my computer and phone. (btw the two phone calls I did get were while I was in a movie at 7:PM and while I was checking out at a grocery store)

My advice is enjoy it if you can, and I will give you recommendations on how to do that.

Missing

I am looking for someone who writes LA like Colum McCann, Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem write New York.

Any suggestions?

Found

Last weekend after a Q & A for Scott Caan's movie Mercy (a great LA story in the vein of Woody Allen's early New York Films) I know this makes me sound fancy and snobby, but Q & As are very common here, it wasn't like I was invited to a special screening or anything, just lucky.

This is not why I have written this post, but as a writer I must provide exposition.

I am writing this post because on my way to the Sunset 5 I saw something that made me happy, imprinted on the window of a restaurant, my new two favorite words, "gluten free."

Funny how two words can change your outlook on life. Sometimes I feel like when I say that I am gluten free, I feel like people look at me like I am trying to be difficult or special or Sally in "When Harry Met Sally" It was nice to not have to think about it. Thank you Pizza Fusion .

It has been a year and a half since I have had pizza and a beer. I was happy to finally try Green's Amber, a little solace to a girl who misses New Castle and Old Peculiar. Sometimes GF beer can just be so watery.

The pizza was fantastic and didn't taste like pizza toppings on a sope crust, like Deano's. PF's crust was thin, crackery, my favorite. My other gluten free friend and I shared the BBQ chicken, coated in BBQ sauce, not bbq spiced chicken in a strange chemical way like I remember CPK being and the Founders, chicken gorgonzola and olives. I guess they have added gluten free personal sizes to their repertoire, a common complaint among early visitors.

It is possible to be gluten free and vegan there too, which I am sure is extremely difficult. Also, it looks like Pizza Fusion has great politics, which I admire in a restaurant. I would really be happy if it stayed open. (hint, hint)

If you are looking for gluten free blog that talks gluten free in LA go to < href="http://www.glutenfreeways.com/"> glutenfreeways.com It seems like they really like a place in Manhattan. (Which is a bit of a schlep)

I am hardly a resource for things gluten free, but will blog about it from time to time.

Words I still can't say

I was talking to someone this week about the words that give my (chicago/mn)accent away. After four and a half years the words I still can't say are:

Hot Dog
Wisconsin
Costume
Don't
pants

Different variations will fall out of my mouth, especially when tired or after a steady night of drinking.

Also, like most Chicagoans I do still use unnecessary propositions:
Can I come with?
Where are you going to?
Where did you get that from?

Do you think that the "eliminate your accent" signs all over LA are meant for me?

forgotten rumination

Renoir really loved to paint his wife.

ruminations on a LACMA visit

I really wanted to see the Renoir exhibit at LACMA. It ends on Sunday....Maybe this is a sort of an if I were you post.

I headed to LACMA and ate lunch and have to say that I need to stop. I get fooled every time. The food is hideous and extremely overpriced. Hence the row of food trucks across the street.

I listened to two attractive girls chatting loudly about finding a good man. I am wondering where he is too as I sit at my table for 1 eating airplane food at the only table w/o an umbrella.

Upon reading the artist statement... Umm... I am pretty sure that there aren't African Americans in the Bahamas because it is a British Commonwealth ....?

Does listening to my ipod make me anti-social?