hipster podcast 2012

All hispters must seek out places in L.A. proper that have Intellegentsia coffee and yelp the following:

"Um.... they have Intellegentsia need I say more"


Side note:(I have nothing against Intellegentsia btw, they make damned good coffee. I just don't like coffee as status)

6 yr L.A.nniversary

Six years ago in January I boarded a plane with everything I could carry and moved here to Los Angeles. Before take off my plane had to be de-iced, it was that cold and also a very scary thought.  The sun hadn't shined for weeks.  Landing here in the land of sunshine, 40 degree winters, smelling sweet like flowers was Minnesota's bizarro world for sure. (Never mind the evil reference) Moving here was the second most daring thing I have done in my life. I like to celebrate that fact. On this day six years ago I was daring. 


I took that picture of snow heavy hydrangea outside of my apartment in South Minneapolis 2 days before I left

So to celebrate the one of three times I have actually been daring I planned to ride the rails with friends stopping at places I love in this city. Taking a page out of the MetroRiders meet up group (I went on their (500) days of summer tour read here)

Stop 1: Square One- (which is always the best place to start)

I never liked breakfast until I was in my mid-twenties, I have a theory on why that is, mainly summed up in one word, beer. I don't think I needed grease in the mornings before I started drinking.  There are a lot of breakfast places in L.A., but Square One is my favorite. And as the hipsters would say:

"Um... they have Intelligentsia need I say more"

I like them because they will put my Benedict on a hash brown cake and I get to stare at the Scientology center and make up stories about the lives of scientologists. (musical perhaps?) Hollandaise sauce and imagination how much more do you need from breakfast? Other than the GF L.A.nniversary cupcakes a friend made for me for post breakfast dessert.

Stop 2: Angel's flight
Well, there is one thing you will learn being an Angeleno is that Angel's Flight is closed for repairs more than it is open for a 25 cent ride. I even checked their twitter and it lied. It said that it was open. When we got there, there was a lone guy painting the car orange and black. He said that we wouldn't be riding that day.  So we walked the stairs to the park and stumbled upon a boy band posing for a photo shoot. So we decided to do our own, centered around the bench used in (500) days of summer. We looked amazing, but perhaps a little Emo.

We passed through Grand Central Market took a gander at the chicken feet for sale on our way to the Bradbury Building. Amazing architecture, but really hard to photograph.

Stop 3: Naked in Los Angeles
Where I had the sweetest lemonade I have ever had, it made my face change shape. So I probably looked more like the Weegee photographs than I wanted to.

Stop 4: Not saying
Because it is my favorite bar in L.A. It is a hidden bar and I am often one of the few people there and I like it that way. I like that when I go there I can actually hear what people are saying and that I can have conversations and $5 sake and $7 Korean short ribs for dinner.  I love that they have a patio nestled between two old buildings, the sky strung with fairylights and that on my way to the bathroom I am greeted by a man's head on a plate.

There I have given you enough hints, if you figure it out, it is not like I told you.

A lot of friends joined and left during the day.  It was nice to spend my day celebrating my daringness with people I love.

I have learned that L.A.nniversary celebrations are pretty common. I guess a testament that being here, staying here, is quite a feat.  And to the person who told me that L.A. would chew me up and spit me out I would like to say that still after 6 years, I guess I am not all that tasty.

Ooops

I realized today as I was walking around downtown Los Angeles, belly full of Pho, that there is a lot I need to write about.  I have been a lot of places, seen a lot of things and I promise that I will get them out of my head and onto here, but for now take an LA journey in photos with my friend K at 365 Oranges.

Click here

Half a love never appealed to me

Valentine's isn't my favorite.

When I had someone I always spent the 13th, or mistress day as it is known in the restaurant world, with my significant other. I thought it was funny, but maybe that says more about how my significant others thought of me, something temporary with no future. Men never marry their mistresses, except maybe that Carla Bruni situation and my uncle.

Valentine's was a day I spent with the ladies, always.  Sometimes out of spite, but mainly because there was no pressure for a day to mean more than it needed to.

Last year around this time I posted on another blog my favorite love songs and anti-love songs. Here they are as they stand this year.

The love song is still the same, but I still love it this year. Because maybe I want someone to find me that awesome and not just temporarily.
I notice that there so many more anti-love songs out there in the world. I love the chorus of Adele's "Someone like you", but I chose instead this song by the Kills because it just kind of fits: Well this blog post took a dramatic turn. Happy Valentine's to all you people who love and have hearts so big that are waiting to love.

xoxo-k

Bus blog-Caught in the act

I honestly wish that I made some of this stuff up....

I was on the 720 in the very last row of seats against the driver side window reading a book about Hemmingway's first wife. And after reading paragraphs of them having conversations throwing around pet names at each other

Tatie, Hems, Earnesto, tiny, momma cat, baby cat, baby, panda, Hads

I needed to rest my eyes from the sappiness.  I looked down into a car, which I sometimes do, and what I saw in that burgundy stationwagonesque vehicle with black leather interior driving through Beverly Hills was a man giving himself a handy in morning traffic.

To use a friend of mine's phrase, which so aptly fits, "I cannot unsee that"

I
cannot
unsee
it

even though it was for a brief moment, my first instinct was he wants you to look him and I need to look away and keep looking away until I get where I am going. My second was THIS IS GOING IN MY BLOG, I was on the bus after all.

NYR

Speaking of New Year's Resolutions, I don't really make them. Sure, there are a lot of things that I would like to start over, have a year be a blank slate, this is my year after all. I am a dragon.  My NYRs are similar to yours, so what ever you want to do I want to too. vitamins, exercise, organics, love, weight, money, read, learn. It all seems so micro-managy as humans we need to micro manage even the things that are potentially there to make us happy.

One year, my NYR was to have more fun.  I made it a point to have fun, and I really haven't stopped that one.  Since that one has turned out so very well, this year,  I chose some very non-serious ones to stick to.

1) Since I live so close to the ocean, I decided that I would be in a swimsuit more than last year. Last year was 3, I say 5 is a good number. With a trip to Mexico and the desert looming in the horizon, I think I will make it.

2) I wouldn't mind if my space made it to be a very cool small space on Apartment Therapy. I have a long way to go, and some plans in the work. I am so very full of ideas.

3) I want to work on my L.A. coffee table book. Publish it myself. I have so many photos of this beautiful/ugly place. Even if it was just for my eyes, it wouldn't matter. It would be nice that at the end of the year I could hold in my hand a very tangible accomplishment.

I'll let you know how it goes.

The most private thing I am willing to admit

I was thinking about myself and the way I act, how I listen, how people see me, all those things you think about as the year turns new.  I was reading my first Charles Bukowski, aptly called Hollywood. I thought this about myself on the plane on my way back here to L.A., but never could put it into words.  It is strange how the world works, how everything ties together at a certain time in your life. I read this and sat back:

"I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I don't want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me to the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta" -Bukowski

The most private thing I am willing to admit, is that sometimes I am not really listening.

hike in 2 parts

I am not much of a Hollywood hiker. I think Runyon Canyon smells like dog piss and I always feel so under dressed and make-uped for everywhere else. So I strapped on my high heels, hoop earrings, booty shorts and went to Griffith to see if I could get close to the Hollywood Sign.

Griffith Park is a maze of trails and one of them in fact leads as close as you could get to the sign and try as we might to get to those big letters in the hills, we ended up almost in the Valley.  Which as any Angeleno knows is totally different.

So this was as close as I got this attempt.

Second attempt was also thwarted in a very different way.  We were going to take a specific road to get to the trail head, coming from a western themed lunch at the Autry. As we headed toward Mount Washington Road we encountered a coyote confusedly running down the street and saw that that road was closed. We headed out of that area onto crowded Los Feliz Blvd, after seeing a second coyote and up Commonwealth that was also closed off.

Since the fates were pressing their bodies against us, we decided to take the same trail I put on my best Tammy Faye and juicy tracksuit to hike, to see a garden that someone designed in the sky. I lost my way the first time tested my fear of heights and just as I thought I would give up because I thought I'd end up in the Valley again, I saw that oasis. And we sat there trying to enjoy the silence. Unfortunately for us a raven the size of a 3 year old boy was squawking away looking for another giant raven mate. (squawk away crow, love is beautiful if you can find it) So we couldn't enjoy the silence.

I found out later that the reason why the roads we encountered we closed due to the discovery of body parts in the park.