Rude by proxy

Last week a story came out by Travel and Leisure Magazine, naming Los Angeles America's rudest city . I love it here, but I tend to agree a little bit with their findings.

From my observations, it is not that people here are out and out rude, it is that everyone here feels that the rules do not pertain to them.

Everyone has to pick up after their dog, but me
Concerts at the Greek theater are smoke free after the fires, but the special cigarettes that I smoke do not set things on fire
It is illegal to talk on your cell w/o a hands free device while driving, but that can't possibly mean my phone conversations

pretty soon you have everyone thinking they are immune to the rules and LA is a dog shit covered town where pedestrians get hit and killed by people talking on their cell phones.

It is that feeling of entitlement, which is rude, by proxy.

5 years

Today, 5 years ago, I packed up everything I could carry and moved to LA by plane. I spent all weekend celebrating with some really great people.

I am puzzled by the thought that I feel like I have always been here.

train blog

I don't often have the chance to use the LA subway, it slants ever so deeper into the east side, and sadly is more convenient to go to the Long Beach Aquarium than it is to go to Santa Monica Pier.

Today I had a mission to get closer to the snow capped mountains and I made it. As far as I could go and it was beautiful.

pavlov's dog

I will make you salivate with pictures.

In my last post I mentioned our New Year's Eve 8 (or 9) course meal. I think I teased you a little bit and made it all about the music. Which I tend to do. I won't lead you on any longer. The following is our foodie adventure leading us to the end of 2010. It couldn't have ended any better.

Prix Fixe

1
Margerita jello shots w/ glistening sea salt

2
Cod and fontina croquettes with red pepper aioli
paired with Paco & Lola Albarino

3
Endive salad with blue cheese, pears and candied walnuts
paired w/ Sauvingnon blanc

4
Galatine w/ Apricot ginger sauce
paired w/ (I think at this point I stopped remembering so well, but I am thinking Pinot)

Intermission in which selections of Pamela August Russel's "B is for Bad Poetry" were read aloud

5
Brisket stuffed ravioli with Chicken Liver Sauce
paired w/ Chianti I think because I vaguely remember thinking something about hannibal lecter

Cocktail hour: French 75s

6
sweet potato latkes, braised pork belly, napa cabbage slaw, apples, cider pork jelly
paired w/ beer

7
Queso Manchego w/ Quince Jelly
paired w/ grenache

(aka my sorry sorry attempt at cooking)

8
The best bread pudding I have ever had in my fucking life
paired w/ ?

Happy 2011!!

making a mix, checking it twice

I was fortunate enough to be invited to an annual communal NYE dinner, which was 8 courses of pure raw food fantasticness, or 9 if you call margerita jello shots with sea salt a course. I say yes because if was very palate cleansing like a sorbet.

As well as providing a course with wine, we were also put to the task of creating a music mix to accompany our dishes.

This is one of my favorite things, sharing music with friends.

At first I found it rather daunting, because cheese with quince jelly accompanied by Grenache doesn't really scream a music genre to me. Perhaps Spanish music, but music from Spain seems to be the one music I am lacking. With the exception of Bebe but it really isn't dinner music.

I thought about it harder and realized that 2010 was a really major interpersonal struggle for me. I had to say goodbye to too many people, too many people's whims had too much bearing on my life, I put some truths that I learned from past situations to the test.

So hidden in these 5 songs, since these songs seem unsentimental from the outside, were my goodbyes.

1. Solitude is Bliss-Tame Impala



This song, not really a goodbye, is from my favorite band of 2010. A band which I like to share w/ my friends new and old, because I like them that much. If you do listen, it does speak of the joys of being alone sometimes. Which is what my October, November and December were for the most part. Me, thinking about the last half of the summer and what it meant and how I can learn.

2. Mi Confesion-Gotan Project

song

This song reminded me of someone I had to say goodbye to, who had too much bearing on my well being, my home, my credit. She really liked "Dancing with the Stars" This song appeared on last season. This song makes me want to learn the tango. Perhaps a resolution, if I had a partner.

My favorite is how many times they repeat "No estoy satisfecho" which translates to "I am not satified" Maybe a battle cry for myself.

3.Ne Vem Que Nao Tem-Wilson Simonal



I am sorry but this song to me screams dinner party. Like in an Italian New Wave film where everyone gets up and starts dancing for 9 minutes of the movie. This song reminds me of my one regret about leaving minneapolis in hindsight. This I will never talk about.

4. Where do you go to my lovely- Peter Sarstedt



Although some say that this song reminds them of puff the magic dragon, it reminds me of the wedding I was in in February. Although your mind from the music may go straight to bridezilla, which I am not sweeping under the rug. It reminds me of the Irish bar in the hotel/casino we were staying in and this fantastic singer that I almost paid a dollar to sing this song. The rest of the story is long, but lets just say the weekend and what followed was the final nail in the coffin that was our friendship.

5. In a matter of speaking- nouvelle vague



This song became the anthem of my dating life in 2010. And has inspired me for my next writing project that I am starting in 2011 with some of the funniest, loving and great story tellers in my current incarnation of life. I'll keep you posted.

So that was 2010. Very hard, but ended in the way that it should have. Eating, laughing, drinking and sharing bad poetry with friends.

Here is to a much better 2011!

city of bable

In LA you come in contact with people all over the, world, the state, the country. I find myself doing a lot of translation lately. Not the kind where someone speaks another language and I paraphrase in English. It is more that I say one thing and provide its regional counterpart.

I realized this as I was planning my very first white elephant party. It wasn't until I invited someone on the east coast by mistake that I realize that out there they call it a "yankee swap" I had heard the term before but completely forgot about it.

It dawned on me that I actually do a lot of that here when I talk to people. I usually stop mid-sentence and say:

"where you live they call it this"

So in order for us to understand each other better, here is what I found to be true:

white elephant = yankee swap (east coast)
bag = sack (iowa and other parts of the mid-west)
World Market=Cost Plus (california and west coast)
Liquor store=packie (Boston Area)
Quit your job=gone drug up (deep south)

I hope that this will you help you to "overstand" people better.

la hipster podcast

Bon jour hipsters,

This is the news for this morning 10/12/10 (european dating people!!)

Nautical stripes are out, even though we have been loving Brigitte Bardot and all things French New Wave, stripes are out

Ironically big glasses (not sun, what are we the mad men crowd?) are still in, it is up to you if they actually have glass in them.

Bonus word of the day, that you have to work into 4 conversations is the word Goethe.

I hope you have a pleasant day full of judging and hating things for no reason.

(btw went to ArtWalk last night)