Clerks II

Once upon a time I kept a complete list of every movie that I saw in theaters. I've done a poor job of keeping it up (I never started the 2005 list which meant that the 2006 list had even less chance of coming to its birth). At my peak I was probably seeing 70-100 movies a year (pre-list).

And yet I never wrote a review longer than one sentence of any film (other than one for my high school newspaper back in the way-old days).

So let me give this a shot (and I'll maybe even keep it up in the future).

There seem to be two kinds of people in the world: Those who liked Clerks and those who thought that it was an awful film. I belong to the first camp, although I'm not a complete Kevin Smith film. I've not seen all of his films even, let alone bought the T-shirts, mugs, mousepads, thong underware and whatever else he sells at his web site (in fact, the only time I've been to his website, as far as I recall, was to watch the Flying Car short).

And I think that I can safely say that if you too fall into the camp of those who liked Clerks you'll almost certainly like Clerks II. Now if you're one of those T-shirt/mug/mousepad/thong-buying freaks, you've already seen the film so I'm writing for those of you who saw it originally and thought, hey, this is pretty funny.

The plot, such as it is, is rather skimpy and predictable (although the point of the original Clerks wasn't really the plot anyway). But as a series of funny sketchlets, it's a great ride. With more than a few nods to the original film and other Kevin Smith films, it's a great way to get out of the heat for an hour and a half or so.

But damn, Brian O'Halloran had better lay off the Cow Tippers. He's gotta be 40 pounds heavier than he was in the original.

NP: "Trouble In Mind," Marie MacGillis and Jazzabilly Blues
WC: 7499, ECD: 27 June 2007.

iTunes Free Music Review: Fink, The Knife

This week we have the usual two new tunes from Apple. First up is Fink, "Pretty Little Thing" from the album of the same name. Apple bills this as an acoustic blues, although it's not really a blues tune, more a bluesy atmosphere with some hammond organ thrown in over the acoustic guitar riff and dub bass. Some nice vocal harmonies and forgettable lyrics round out the song. The kind of thing you'd expect to hear from KCRW while cruising the freeways on a weekend afternoon.

The second song is "We Share Our Mothers' Health" from The Knife from their album Silent Shout. I guess this would be progressive techno or some such. It begins with a bit of electronica noise before settling into its dance-heavy groove. Not really a genre that I know much about, so I tend to trust the tastemakers behind the iTunes free weekly tunes to provide me with something reasonably decent. The underlying track manages to avoid the dreary repetitiveness that characterizes a lot of dance music (which seems to be based around the same 8-beat loop for 5+ minutes, here we at least have a short chord progression). The lyrics switch between heavily processed female vocals and heavily processed male vocals and the two going on together. I have no idea what the song is about, but it's got a great beat and you can dance to it. I give it a ten.

WC: 7499, ECD: 27 June 2007.

Solar Harvest

Beverly Hills: swimming pools, movie stars, and, apparently, reasonably priced healthy food.

I heard about Solar Harvest courtesy of Google Maps' Green summer. It was the only link that seemed like something that my wife and I would actually do (after all, why stay at a hotel locally). Add in that it's been too hot to cook and bang, we're heading out for dinner on a Monday night.

It's an environmentally friendly restaurant which means, among other things, that they weren't running the air conditioner. It wasn't uncomfortable in the restaurant, but I did realize at the end of the meal that I was sweating (I also drank about a dozen glasses of water: I wanted to tell the waitress to just leave the pitcher at our table).

I went for the Cuban Sandwich while Nalleli had the Cal-Mex chicken breast and guacamole plus a bit of pita bread. Our food was quite excellent and I thought that if I were likely to do such a thing, their "let us cook all your meals for you for convenient pick-up or delivery" plan sounded like something that I would do. Nalleli, on the other hand, felt like there wasn't a lot on the menu that she really wanted to eat.

And like just about every restaurant in this price range, it seems they too have a Hollywood Bowl picnic deal, which at $32 for dinner for two seems like one of the better deals around.

Solar Harvest, 242 S Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills,310/777-6527

NP: "We Share Our Mothers' Health," The Knife, Silent Shout
WC: 6994, ECD: 10 June 2007

Don't think you're going to buy a fan... because you aren't

It turns out that every fan in every store in the area has been sold. At one store we were regaled with a tale of a customer retuyrning (lord only knows why) a fan and before the return was processed someone else wanted to buy it.

There's my heat posting for this heat wave.

The temperature should be dropping about 8 degrees tomorrow and staying in that neighborhood for the rest of the week.

99 Essential Restaurants: Clementine

So after a rather expensive restaurant last week, we decided to visit the other end of the cost spectrum and stop by Clementine's by Century City which the L.A. weekly rated as ¢ (we actually spend around $10/person, although given that Jonathan Gold thinks that $35 is the going price for a burger in L.A., that's not too far off the mark.

As their website will happily tell you, there's no real problem getting there even with the construction. The trick, we found was (a) finding parking and (2) getting back out.

We found ourselves passing the special barbeque Friday offering in favor of picking a few things off the regular menu: I went for the sloppy joe (something I don't think I've eaten since college) and a glass of lime-aid while Nalleli had a quiche and potato salad. The sloppy joe was a more than serviceable and the lime-aid was a nice drink for a hot day. The quiche was good per Nalleli's report and the potato salad was a wonderful instance of a classic dish with just enough hard-boiled egg to keep the potatoes from being dull.

As a dining experience, Clementine's isn't really the place to go for dinner, I have to admit, but it seems that it's strength really lies in the idea of buying a few pounds of a selection of salads as a take-out. Certainly, that would be the most appealing of the options that they offer in their Hollywood Bowl picnic offerings.

Clementine, 1751 Ensley Ave., Los Angeles, (310) 552-1080.

NP: Breathless (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
WC: 6994, ECD: 10 June 2007

Theology on Tap

For those Catholics out there (or people who aren't weirded out by Catholic stuff), the summer speaker series, Theology on Tap has returned (yes, there is beer. And a free dinner too!). The Our Lady of the Angels region events are held at St Mary Magdalene (1241 Corning St, LA 90035) on Thursdays at 7.30. The remaining three talks are "Dinner and a movie... and God: Discovering Spiritual Themes in Contemporary Films" by Sr Rose Pacatte, "Finding Common Ground: Ever Wonder What Other Faiths Believe" by Rev. Alexei Smith, and "Living Spiritually in a World of Temptations and Distractions" by Fr John Stoeger.

The hall where the first talk was held was nearly completely filled and desparately in need of air conditioning (they did, however have ice cream). Our first presenter, Floy (not a typo) Hawkins, did a good job of tieing together the spiritual and psychological as well as dealing with one man who might have otherwise turned the talk into his own public therapy session.

NP: "Army Burn Center Sees Some of Worst War Wounds," NPR: Story of the Day
WC: 6994, ECD: 10 June 2007

Biking L.A.: Doing it on the web

After Curbed L.A. posted a link to Bikely, I decided to post my ride last weekend on Venice Blvd to the Bikely site (thus the shiny new map in that post). A further commenter at Curbed pointed out Bike Metro which he described as mapquest for bikes. It lets you select your traffic tolerance (although it calls it bicyclist skill level) and hill tolerance. They appear to have the L.A. bike route map in their system which helps a bit in selecting routes, no doubt. The traffic comfort level seems a little broken, though: I can't get it to give me an alternative to La Cienega to get down to Venice Blvd.

Also unfortunate at bikemetro is that they appear to be using some horrid old map technology rather than the newer stuff that they have at google maps. I've gotten spoiled by the speediness of the ajax system for mapping and it kind of hurts to be forced into some slower tech.

NP: "Eat The Music (U. S. mix)," Kate Bush, And So Is Love EP
WC: 6994, ECD: 10 June 2007

99 Essential Restaurants: Susina Bakery & Cafe

I've actually made two visits here so far. Once with a couple friends on a Saturday night and again with my wife on a Sunday afternoon. And neither time did I realize that it was on the 99 essential restaurants list (oh joy! I'm up to four restaurants now!).

The reason that we came here on both occasions was the desserts. And they are mighty fine. I've had the blueberry cheesecake (just like my wife makes) and the key lime pie (completely unlike my wife's lime pie). The last time we went, we ended up getting dinner there. Nalleli had a panini while I opted for a cobb salad (what is a cobb anyway?). The sandwich was good, but the salad turned out to be a large quantity of chopped iceberg lettuce with the toppings arranged on top so once I managed to get through the first layer of salad, I had nothing but bland white lettuce (I prefer darker leaves in my lettuce, courtesy of my wife's produce snobbery).

On Saturday night, the place was fairly empty and relaxed. Sunday afternoon, it was crazy crowded and the tarot card reader who advertises on the cards wasn't even there. Only by hovering vulture-like over the tables were we able to snag an indoor seat.

It seems like it would be a good place to take my laptop and do some writing some quiet afternoon. It's close enough to home to be a casual bike ride away. Drive there? Forget about it. Even when it's empty, the parking situation is pretty abysmal and while there is a lot behind the building, your chances of finding a space there seem pretty slim. Street parking is not much better.

Susina Bakery & Cafe, 7122 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, 323/934-7900.

NP: "Still Swingin'," Kevin Mahogany Kevin Mahogany
WC: 6994, ECD: 10 June 2007

iTunes free music review

Every Tuesday, Apple releases one or more free tracks on the iTunes Music Store (go to the iTMS home page, scroll down to the bottom and look in the left column for the links). This week, we're treated to a single song, "Lonely Train," from Black Stone Cherry's self-titled album.

iTMS says "This isn't your grandmother's grunge" but it really seems more like the Spinal Tap of grunge as the band earnestly sings, "You can't judge a book by its cover" during the refrain. But, as usual, it is at least free.

WC: 6994, ECD: 10 June 2007

Biking West L.A.: Venice Blvd

The official bike map of Los Angeles has Venice Blvd marked in a color which indicates that it's a good street for biking, a prospect I found dubious when my wife pointed it out to me on the map, but I decided that we'd give it a try on the way back from the beach this weekend. Worst case scenario, $1.25 each would put our bikes in the bus bike rack and us in air-conditioned seats.

Well, I'm now a convert. What Venice Blvd has going for it is a rather wide marked bike lane. So while the traffic is pretty hairy (I've never really liked driving it), the biking is quite nice. Now all we need to do is find a good alternate to La Cienega to get from Olympic down to Venice.



NP: "Slowburn," Peter Gabriel, Muppet 09
WC: 6586, ECD: 24 May 2007

Latest on the Ferrari Enzo story

The L.A. Times has more on the ongoing saga of the Ferrari Enzo story. The latest development: The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority has shut down after its owner, Yosuf Maiwandi was arrested for impersonating a police officer when he tried to use his SGVTA PD credentials to get the vehicles he owned which had been impounded in the investigation released.

NP: "Episode 74," Real Time with Bill Maher
WC: 5958, ECD: 21 December 2008

It's gone away

The Red Line Diary, that is. It's a pity as it was well-written, but, alas, the author made the mistake of giving up his blog in the most extreme sense (if you're going to abandon a blogspot url, don't delete the blog: I think that it's better to leave a post indicating your willingness to relinquish the blog name and then give it to another blogger so that the webspammers don't get it instead).

NP: "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves," Vintage ToonCast
WC: 5958, ECD: 21 December 2008

L.A.'s Small Theaters - Fremont Centre Theatre

Despite the gratuitous use of not one but two -re endings in its name, the Fremont Centre Theatre is a remarkably unpretentious theater. With 60 seats on a raised platform arranged in a traditional long-narrow format and a T-shirted volunteer who comes on stage before the production to remind everyone to turn off their cell phones and donate money to the non-profit foundation responsible for the productions. The small informal nature of the theatre doubtless lead to us having a brief conversation with the three elderly people seated behind us before the show.

On stage when we went was "The Value of Names" (closing 23 July), with a three-person cast, all with extensive TV and movie credits (nothing major, but given the sheer amount of TV and movie production in this town, you probably would be hard-pressed to cast a three-person cast even for a theatre company which has audition information on their web site.

That said, the production was excellent. The actors playing Benny and Leo were fantastic. Perhaps too fantastic, as the actress playing Benny's daughter Leo ended up seeming somewhat inadequate in comparison, despite a great part.

Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 S Fremont, South Pasadena

NP: "Episode 78," Real Time with Bill Maher.
WC: 5958, ECD: 21 Dec 2008

99 Essential L.A. Restuarants: Bistro K

3 down, 96 to go.

When I realized that Friday was Bastille Day (and also roughly the 4 year anniversary of when my wife and I started dating), I decided that we really should have French food. Looking through the list, I decided that Bistro K looked like a good option, and for an added bonus, we decided to go to the Fremont Centre Theatre afterwards.

I opted for the pre-theatre dinner which gave me a first course of carrot-ginger soup, a main course of veal sweetbreads and a dessert of pineapple tamal. Nalleli had a first course of Frisée Salad Tossed in a Pomegranate Vinaigrette, Sweet Corn Tamale, “Selles Sur Cher” Goat Cheese Ripened By Nicole, a main course of duck (which I can't find on theRestaurant Menus web site, although I was glad that the waiter did not follow the lead of the chef from L'Idiot and say, "she can't have the duck"), and a dessert of Jasmine Green Tea Creme Brulet with guava and berries.

My previous experiences with French cuisine have not always been entirely happy (nor were we properly attired as we had a knack for showing up in fancy French restaurants after an afternoon of boulder hopping in the San Gabriels or heavy housecleaning at home. This time around, however, I found the food and service delightful. Nalleli pointed out that the waiter was especially skilled at describing the flavors of the food served, which is quite a rare gift.

The restaurant is BYOB and most clients do in fact bring their own bottles. We didn't and I think our absence of a bottle of wine left the staff a bit surprised. I knew I should have swung by TJ's to get a bottle of two-buck chuck.

I don't buy the argument that the meal was the price of a burger down the street however. Our bill, with tax and tip, for two topped $70. That would have to be one HELL of a burger for $35.

Bistro K, 1000 S Fremont, South Pasadena, 626/799-5052

NP: "The Moderns," Mark Isham, Rare On Air, Vol. 1
WC: 5903, ECD: 2 September 2006

L.A. Stories in a google map

I've been meaning to do this for a while: Here's an index to postings on L.A. Stories via google maps. Click on the link at the bottom of the map to be able to get to the actual links to stories from map markers.

Not the best way to appeal a decision

KPCC reported this evening that an MTA employee, enraged that he was being but on administrative suspension, went on a rampage in which he wrecked four buses aand thirteen cars.

I'm thinking that he probably will be getting a bit more than administrative suspension for that.

NP: "Come a Long Way," Michelle Shocked, KSCA Live from the Music Hall, Vol. 2
WC:5903, ECD: 2 Sep 2007.

The kind of thing that you only see in L.A.

Auditions for sign twirlers:



NP: "A Hard Day's Night," The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night
WC: 5653, ECD: 10 May 2008

Beverly Hills-South Pas: Best way to do this Friday afternoon

Tomorrow, in quest of another essential L.A. restaurant (and theatrical experience), my wife and I are going to South Pasadena (Bistro K/Fremont Centre Theatre) and I'm wondering what the best route to take from Beverly Hills (Maple/Beverly) to South Pas would be. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Update (7/16): We ended up taking Beverly-Sunset-110 to get to South Pas. Other than the 110 being a parking lot from Figueroa to the 5, it was a reasonably quick drive.

NP: "Introduzione. Allegro - Allegro vivace," Novak Quartet, Bartok: The 6 String Quartets
WC: 5653, ECD: 10 May 2008

L.A.'s Small Theaters - The Fountain Theatre

As much as I love L.A., it's really not a great place for live theater. For those who want to make it big on the stage, the only place to be is New York (or, I suppose, London). And for exciting, creative, innovative theater, you cannot beat Chicago (if you have any doubts and are going to Chicago, you should start by checking out Redmoon or Lookingglass for two of the best small-medium theater companies, then move on to the Goodman or Steppenwolf. And if anything directed by Mary Zimmerman is playing anywhere go see it, even if it means selling a kidney).

But I live in L.A., so one of my quests is to hunt down what's happening here. I'm less interested in the big stages (although I have been to the Taper and the Ahmanson and seen good stuff there). The more interesting thing, to me at least, is what's going on in the small theaters.

So to inaugurate a feature, I'm going to introduce my reader to the small theaters of [greater] L.A., beginning with the Fountain Theatre.

My wife and I saw Joe Turner's Come and Gone (currently on stage through 21 July) here. The theatre is very small (I'm guessing that it seats perhaps 60-80 with seats so close to the low stage that my wife was admonished for stepping on the stage on the way to our seats. There's little theater-style dining in the neighborhood (we ate at Zhankou Chicken), but it's also not really the sort of place that you put on your fanciest suit or dress (depending on gender, of course) to attend.

The production was well acted although flipping through the program they seem to have 2-3 actors cast for each role (and despite this high level of redundancy, on our first attempt to see the play, the performance had been canceled because of an "actor conflict"). But even with an unpredictable cast on stage, the interaction between the actors was flawless (I have to wonder what rehearsals are like with casting like that). There were a couple vaguely familiar faces (oh, I see, he played a cop on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but no big names, which to me is preferable. After all, it's not easy to accept that the guy on stage is Willy Loman if in the back of your mind you keep saying, "hey! it's Brian Dennehy!"

Coming up is Little Armenia, billed as a tribute to the neighborhood in which the theater sits and on Sunday nights they have Flamenco performances. Clearly a gem of a theater/production company and one whose performances merit keeping an eye on.

Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles 90029 323/663-1525

NP: "Introduzione. Allegro - Allegro vivace," Novak Quartet, Bartok: The 6 String Quartets
WC: 5653, ECD: 10 May 2008

My MTA adventure

Yesterday, I was attending a talk by Richard Rohr at the L.A. Catholic Worker and since I've recently seen An Inconvenient Truth, the need to not drive was fresh on my mind so I decided to take the MTA from Olympic/La Cienega to Boyle Heights and back.

$3 buys a Metro day pass, and knowing that in advance, I boarded the 328 (Olympic express) at a bit after 8.30 and headed east. The ride was pleasant and uneventful, although the volume of the announcements was a bit low (but what do I know, I have a hearing problem).

Unfortunately, I had not bothered to look too closely at the suggested routing from the MTA web site so rather than take their suggested route, I got off at Cesar Chavez and started walking looking for an eastbound bus. I got on a 70 (Mission) near Union Station and got off at State and walked the short distance to the L.A. Catholic Worker house, noting the busway stop that I remembered the MTA wanted me to get off at along the way (nine and a half years ago, I got off at that same stop when I arrived at the Catholic Worker for my brief sojourn as a member of the house).

The talk itself was great, and I may post a separate entry about it if anyone's interested, but right now I want to focus on the MTA.

For the return trip, I walked down to Cesar Chavez and got on a westbound 68 and got off by Union Station and walked through the impressive new gateway on the east side of the building (OK, new is a relative term, but once upon a time I lived in Claremont and worked downtown and enjoyed taking Metrolink/bike to work and back then, this part of Union Station was under construction). A Wilshire/Western train arrived shortly after I did and I happily hopped on it as it sped us underground to the end of the line. And let me say, they need to start digging the rest of the subway NOW.

Especially because of what happened next. I went upstairs and joined a medium-sized crowd waiting for a westbound 720. And we waited. And waited. And waited. I contemplated hopping on a 20 that arrived, but decided that it looked crowded and surely a 720 would arrive eventually. After 45 minutes I gave up and walked down to Olympic and waited some more. The first 28 to arrive stopped on the other corner, disgorged all of its passengers and vanished empty. Then 15 minutes later a pair of 28s arrived. I opted for the second one which was only going as far as Fairfax, but was empty. I could walk from Fairfax to Olympic just fine, but I'd rather not stand from Western to Fairfax.

This was all off-peak travel, but they really need to do something about improving the flow of buses in the early afternoon. The wait for the 720 especially was beyond what was reasonable.

NP: "House On Fire," Pete & Maura Kennedy, FM 101.9 New Music Sampler: Music to a Muse
WC: 5482, ECD: 27 November 2007.

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means

WC: 5482, ECD: 27 November 2007.

I've done been blogrolled

Just a quick thank-you to LA City Nerd who's put us in his blogroll. I've remedied the gross deficiency in my blogroll (and one of these days, I need to remedy a few more deficiencies.

If you dig a bit you'll see that I've been grossly deficient in posting here, so I'll make this offer: For every comment that I get from my visitors, I'll make a point of writing at least one new post in response (and hopefully I won't get too insane of comment traffic.

And for those of you morbidly curious about my musical activities, check out my Music Diary here. Or to see what I've been reading, go here.

NP: "Shallow," Porcupine Tree, iTunes New Music Sampler (Atlantic/Lava Edition)
WC: 5482, ECD: 27 November 2007.

99 Essential L.A. Restuarants: Guelaguetza

I think nearly every blog in L.A. (except this one) has already linked to Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential Los Angeles Restaurants, but I'm looking at doing this one differently. When I looked through the list, I'd only ever been to one of these. (My God, how pathetic, you're thinking.) So, since my wife and I traditionally go out to eat once a week, I've decided that we'd hit most (but not necessarily all) of the restaurants on the list.

Our starting point on this adventure is the Oaxacan restaurant, Guelaguetza. My wife is Mexican and she turned me on to Oaxacan cuisine via the American(!) chef, Rick Bayless, and I've made a number of dishes from his Mexican Kitchen cookbook (brief review: Great recipes, but not really daily fare. Preparation times are not given but expect that you'll spend at least an hour in the kitchen actively chopping, mixing and cooking to make these recipes.)

Gold points out that the restaurant serves such delicacies as grasshopers which appear untranslated on the menu as Chapulines, but we decided to be a bit less adventurous (but still somewhat adventurous).

We were greated at our table with tortilla chips with Guelaguetza's red mole and queso fresco, and while the mole was a little on the sweet side, it was a nice opening for the meal. I went for the enchiladas de cecina with red mole (I actually would have preferred to try the black mole, but they never asked me). The enchiladas were liberally drenched in the mole with the meat on top and cheese sprinkled over the mole. I had a tamarind Jarritos to drink. My wife went for the taquitos de pollo and a drink made from squash whose name I forget (and which is not listed in the menu at Menu Pages). Our food was good and the mole was much better in the context of the enchiladas than on the chips (where it was still good). Dear wife, however, found her drink a bit too sweet for her. Your milage may vary: She has a lower tolerance for sweetness than do most Americans, and I found the squash an, um, unusual choice for a beverage.

Guelaguetza. 3337½ W. Eighth St., Los Angeles, (213) 427-0779. There is another location (with a bar) at 3014 Olympic and a third location opening "soon" in Huntington Park.

NP: "The Greatest," Planet Asia, The Grand Opening
WC: 5482, ECD: 27 November 2007.