May 29, 2008 at 8:19 am (Posts)
Tags: elliott smith, film, los angeles, new york, yoga
Alameda street runs from downtown LA to Long Beach. I would never walk down it on purpose, as Elliott Smith says…but I did pass over it tonight. Downtown is completely vacant at night and I have no desire to be down there, but I was on my way home from a late yoga class and I spaced out on the 10. It was only when I saw the tall buildings of downtown that I realized I had gone too far.
LA can be a rather strange place sometimes. Its only when you pull back and look at the bigger picture that you can realize that. Yoga classes that run from 10:45pm-Midnight. Who’s ever heard of that?
Yesterday, I went over to the BP Gas Station on Robertson which is “green” friendly. Supposedly the gas emits less CO2 and is miraculously cheaper than other gas stations. All of their brochures can be planted in the ground to become flowers. The attendants wear old fashioned uniforms and are all bright, young kids. The place is immaculate with recycled rubbered flooring. I have loved this gas station ever since I moved and just when I thought they couldn’t go any farther, Arturo says “I’ve never seen live music at a gas station.” Turn. Look. One of the attendants is playing the guitar. Three people are sitting and watching her. And you thought LA didn’t have culture! Guess what she played? The theme song to Reading Rainbow. If that doesn’t warm your heart, I don’t know what does…
Today, I called my dad to see if he had any pictures of two dead girls I could use for the show. He acted like I was crazy and said I should shoot my own pictures of dead girls. He also said Hollywood isn’t called Hollyweird for nothing. “Its different out there in Hollywood”.
I thought, “Yea, you’re right”, but then again, everyone here says the same thing about New York.
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May 26, 2008 at 11:20 pm (1)
Tags: Arturo, books, pasadena, reading
reading. my biggest struggle. i choose to be involved with far more interesting people than myself and once i have exhausted my knowledge of their subjects, which interestingly enough is usually 0-1%, they expect me to read.
reading. is. hard.
i gave up reading when i graduated from high school. yes, high school. i tried to take it back up when i dated eric, in an effort to better understand him, as well as my Catholic faith. I successfully read one, maybe two books.
arturo reads all the time. aquinas, aristotle (two of his favorites), pieper, maritain, the list goes on…
so, naturally when we go to a used bookstore in pasadena, i think, hmm, i should find a book. finding books is easy. there is plenty that im interested in. in fact, im interested in an enormous amount, far more than i could ever read. so why don’t i like to read?
after convincing myself, that this time, i will read. i buy 3 books:
Problems of Art by Susanna Langer – a philosophy of art book which may or may have not anything valid or interesting to say.
Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard himself – the fictional propaganda, cough, i mean bible of the scientologists, complete with 3 mail-in cards in case i want to become an actress…i mean scientologist.
Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind by Bertrand Russell et al- the interviews with an atheist.
Well, I suppose I am changing my method of attack…
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May 19, 2008 at 2:26 pm (1)
Tags: Arturo, beach, catalina island, vacation
In typical power couple fashion, Arturo and I zipped over to Catalina Island for a couple of days. He was on the phone for the hour and a half up until we boarded the boat, losing equity in his company for going on vacation. Tough break. I managed to avoid work altogether, however!
Catalina is a beautiful island only 1 hour West of LA by boat.
The island is relatively big, but there are very few inhabitants, naturally. There is a small town called Two Harbors which is mostly for camping, hiking, diving, etc. And there is only one city, Avalon, that is less than 2 square miles. That is where we went.
We step off the boat and walked literally 10 feet and were at our hotel. Amazing. Ten feet more…margaritas. Back 5 feet…beach.
Amongst our many adventures in Catalina, we took a tour through parts of the island up to the famous airport in the sky. The tour guide told us he had lived in Catalina for years and that it was quite a crazy place, because it has
-Birds that swim
-Fish that fly
-A casino with no gambling
-Cops who drive a golfcart
-Something else I can’t remember but that was very funny
Mr. Wrigley, of the Wrigley company, bought Catalina to develop it, but tried to preserve most of the nature on the island. Arturo and I biked up to the botanical gardens. Yes, we are impressed with ourselves.
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April 29, 2008 at 4:36 am (le cinema)
Tags: film, hollywood, los angeles, min, Nova Express Cafe
I forgot to mention that after slitting our wrists over the closing of Nova Cafe, we went over to M Cafe on Melrose and saw Mr. Michael Cera being the George Michaeliest George Michael you ever did see. Hanging out at the counter all awkward and alone. Plus he was wearing royal blue skinny jeans. What a sweetheart. It almost made Arturo forget about dear old CBGB, I mean…Nova.
Tonight, Meagen and I went to a screening of Son of Rambow, courtesy of my friend Elizabeth who works for Paramount Vantage. We pull onto the Paramount lot and are greeted by 4 Paramount Vantage pals who check our names off their list. We park and go over to the theater. About 5 minutes after we sat down (about 7:10), the guy at the projector yells out something like “play movie” or “here we go” even though the screening was not supposed to start until 7:30. No one else was in the theater.
We kept thinking they were testing it, but no. For some reason, a film that has been hyped for months, that doesn’t even open until Friday, was screened for just me and Min at Paramount’s Theater.
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April 28, 2008 at 5:25 am (1)
Tags: Arturo, Cosmic pizza, dots, los angeles, Nova Express Cafe
Park on Rosewood Ave at Fairfax. Walk one block South on Fairfax on the East side of the street. Go past the kitschy bookstore, but stop before the turntable store. Don’t walk too fast. Look for remnants of neon paint and a charred marquis. This sad looking facade used to be Nova Express Cafe.
Nova may or may not be the place where Arturo and I had our first date, but nevertheless, we decided to visit this crazy cafe tonight for dinner. As we double-checked the address, poor Arturito’s face fell. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, not Nova Express. We looked inside to find a completely vacant space.
This restaurant, full of bright purple and green, huge aliens and lava lamps, not to mention a menu of “intergalactic” food, had been completely destroyed.
Apparently Nova was well loved. Arturo and his friend George appreciated the…shall we say eclectic…crowd, the crazy atmosphere, and of course, IDM, the fancy word for music made with dots and loops. (yea, yea, I know, its intelligent:P)
Look at all the sad Angelenos who will miss Nova Express Cafe. Perhaps we will never know what happened to Nova. Perhaps I should check a secondary source aside from Yelp. I’ll tell you one thing. I could really go for a Spiral Galaxy pizza right now.
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April 16, 2008 at 10:10 pm (1)
Tags: dirt, environment, grass, green, los angeles, raw, whole foods
Approximately 10 minutes ago:
Arturo: i want to grab a bite to eat after yoga
will you have eaten, maybe i can get you food too?
Me: i probably wont eat before tennis. where are you going to go?
Arturo: i don’t know. maybe whole foods
Me: alright! Can i get a cup of grass and a side of dirt?
Arturo: ooooooooo
Arturo: that’s exactly what i’m going to get you smart ass
Arturo: hell yeah. dirt has good minerals.
I like to eat healthy food…most of the time…ok, some of the time. I’m naturally drawn to healthy food, but I do love pizza and chicken fingers and milkshakes and…
Arturo’s obsessed with the raw food movement and yoga, so I always make fun of his good choices. He drinks Aloe Vera.
I googled Whole Foods to see how late they are open and came across this:
I’ve read that blog before, but never seen number 48. Looks like Arturo is whiter than me;-)
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April 8, 2008 at 3:18 am (art)
Tags: art, artist colony, artwalk, brewery, lofts, los angeles, things alexa is jealous of
Sunday, Gina and I went to the Brewery in downtown LA for the Artwalk. Most of the artists, galleries, fashion designers, etc open their studios (where they live and work) for people to see. Artwork is for sale everywhere at ridiculously cheap prices.
Each studio is completely different with MASSIVE picture windows, decks with gardens, and dramatically unique layouts. Every artist had truly altered their space exactly how they wanted, down to painting the floor and making their own address numbers.
This is easily the coolest place I have ever been in my entire life and one day I want to live here and starve and pay $6000 in rent.
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-guide6nov06,0,1480155.story?page=1
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April 2, 2008 at 6:08 am (1)
Tags: film, hollywood, hollywood sign, sunset gower
When I used to work on Dexter, I passed by a certain picture every morning. Dexter is based at Sunset Gower, which used to be Columbia Pictures, so the hallways are lined with pictures of old Hollywood.
This particular image was taken right down the center of the lot, with the Hollywood sign in the center. It looks almost just like it does today, except the sign reads: HOLLYWOODLAND.
Hollywoodland?
I thought the sign used to read Hollywood Estates?
Apparently, the Hollywood sign was established as an advertisement for the real estate in the Hollywood hills by the Hollywoodland real estate development company. It was only supposed to stay up for about a year, but since several studios (Sunset Gower/Columbia included) set up shop near there, the sign became an internationally recognized landmark synonymous with the film business.
The sign’s caretaker destroyed the “H” during a car accident. (He survived) In the 1940s, the chamber of commerce had the “land” removed. Over the years, the sign has required a lot more attention than is acknowledged. Each letter has a “sponsor” who pays to upkeep that part of the sign. Hef sponsors the “Y” and Alice Cooper sponsors the second “O”.
So when you are walking down the lot at Sunset Gower (thinking about how ghetto Gower Gulch is) look up at that old Hollywood sign you are walking towards and remember the actors and directors who used to walk that same path fifty years ago…
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March 24, 2008 at 5:06 am (faith)
Tags: amazing people, Bread, Christian, coffee, defrosted chicken tetrazini, Easter
Bread is a free coffeehouse and Christian campus ministry @ Emory. It is where I spent the majority of my free time and where I met my best friends at school.
I went to Bread tonight to celebrate Easter and was lucky enough not to only see Chip, but Beth, Daniel and Erin as well.
When I arrive, Chip is busy rushing around preparing things for his Easter service and he says,
“Alexa, what can I get you?”
“Chip, don’t be ridiculous, please let me help. What can I do?”
“Well, I have these hymnals. We’re going to sing this song, but it turns I have 5 different versions and we need to figure out if any are the same.”
Chip’s sermon was about sometimes you don’t expect God or Jesus and you don’t recognize him. He told a story about how he saw his friend Hans in France:
“So, I didn’t know it was Hans because I wasn’t used to seeing him in France, I was used to seeing him in Atlanta…and you know, when they go to the tomb…my wife buried him on Friday.”
“What? Are we talking about Hans or Jesus.”
“Jesus, but I can see how you were confused.”
I miss this place, probably even MORE than I miss chicken tacos from Taqueria del sol.
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March 23, 2008 at 4:45 am (faith)
Tags: atlanta, cathoLic, faith, positive thinking
For the one year anniversary of my conversion into the Catholic faith, I returned to the site of my baptism and confirmation.
As I watched Father Bryan ask each candidate why they chose their confirmation names, I remembered what he said to me last year. He had known that I was freaked out about him asking me a hard question. Listening to him ask my fellow candidates their questions, he could tell I was nervous. So, this is all he said:
“You know that Peter denied Christ and Christ forgave him. And he will forgive you”
Believe it or not, it has been very meaningful to me this entire year, particularly as I think about constant conversion.
This evening as I went up for communion, he wished me a Happy Anniversary. After mass, I got to see Todd and Erika, my RCIA teachers who wished me the same.
On this night, I remembered that this is home.
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