I’ve been on a little staycation and its been so much fun to reconnect with friends who’ve gathered in town. Including a spontaneous sleepover followed by breakfast at local haunt Chips diner, chatting for hours and hours on all our recent insights and dreams. We also went Downtown for fantastic fun-filled all-nighter jumping from to Wurstkuche for sausages and beer- yum! to the Golden Gopher for drinks and the Original Pantry Cafe for a hilarious apple pie a la mode ordeal with a sweet old waiter in a bow-tie. Classic!

Now to break out the holiday cheer! We’ve cozied up the place with a Christmas wreath, a cinnamon broom (which is making our place smell delightful), fairy lights, and thoughtful pressies.

Lady GaGa is giving her fifteenth show on the North-American leg of her “Monster Ball” tour in Los Angeles.

Videos:

01. Bad Romance
02. Just Dance
03. Poker Face

Check out a peek into Gaga’s in-store appearance at Best Buy in LA for Club Beats!

I just received this grinder the day before yesterday from Hario USA, after Googling about French presses and grinders for several days.

I’ve switched between tea and coffee since about 1992-93, when I first went into the Starbucks in Pasadena on the corner of Lake and California and tried the mocha. I never really cared for coffee before, and that first mocha was memorable. Since then sometimes I drink, sometimes I take I break. In 1995 I drank nothing (no water, no juice, no milk) but mochas from Espresso Roma in Pasadena. Not recommended. I stopped drinking tea most recently when I got a 3 cavities a year ago. It was because I’d slowly sip on sweetened, milk tea in the morning and then sometimes I’d rush off for lunch and not brush; and it was a big surprise when I got 3 cavities in 1 visit. Also my teeth have become sensitive over the years, and it likely has something to do with this coffee/tea habit. Not good. So I stopped drinking tea and coffee for a while a few months ago, and it was fine. But then I’d occasionally started dropping by at Starbucks and get some of their drip coffee, and it was nice. One day I noticed my old French press in the back of my cupboard; I’d been most recently drinking tea for atleast 2 years, so I was surprised to find it there, since a lot of that kind of stuff is in storage.

At home I drink French press only, and I like it better than any other type of coffee, and I don’t mind that it’s got a little bit of coffee sediment in it. I read Sweet Maria’s website and I was thinking about getting the pretty brass Zassenhaus Turkish mill, but obviously it’s built for ultra-fine Turkish grinding, and for French press you need a coarse grind, so I asked them and they said it would work on its coarsest settings, though it would be a bit on the fine side. That’s how I ground my coffee anyway when I had a Capresso grinder, their lowest burr grinder model. It was alright, but nothing special, and rather messy (I’d have to run it in the sink because there’d be all kinds of coffee grinds flying out of it, and it was loud; I finally threw it away when the plastic basket cracked for the second time after a reasonably good run with it).

Sweet Maria’s had the Hario Skerton for sale, and I liked the fact that it is small and a hand-grinder. (I am something of a Luddite.) I looked for reviews of the Skerton as a French press grinder, but didn’t really see anything except a few forum posts which were largely positive. I ordered it, but Sweet Maria’s was out of stock, so I got it from Hario USA, which is a nice operation. The grinder comes with only Japanese instructions; I think the importer should translate the instructions. But it’s easy enough to basically figure out what to do.

Although it looks like the grinds are only adjustable to certain settings, in fact the whole assembly comes apart and you set the grind using a bolt and nut type assembly, not by selecting from the slots on the top, which steady the grinding mechanism I think. So I dialed in a grind I thought would work the night before (all anticipation).

In the morning I ground my beans. Like other posts, I noticed that the end of the grinder is wobbly on the coarse setting. I put the beans in and turned the handle… and it was great. It worked smoothly, nicely, even though the end was wobbly you can feel the satisfaction of catching the beans in the burrs and grinding them as you turn the crank. I don’t know how to check whether grind was even or not, it looked about as even as when I it ground at Starbucks or from the old Capresso. To do my 15o morning coffee probably took me about a minute give or take a few seconds, nothing at all.

When I drank the press, I was pleasantly surprised by how little sediment there was compared with Starbucks, the supermarket grinder, and the old Capresso. There was much less than from any of those, and the coffee had that extra freshly-ground punch to it. I also read some other website where the fellow said that beans flew out the top of his Skerton and he made a lid out of a butter container lid to cover the bean basket; I didn’t have that problem at all.

So the Hario Skerton is indeed wobbly on coarse, but it’s an excellent, affordable, quiet, compact French press hand grinder.

Photographed by JohnnyRokkit

Opening Night

10.28.06 – 11.25.06

Derek Albeck, Chris Anthony, Van Arno, Bigfoot, Blinky, Andrew Brandou, Dan Brereton, Brezo, Ron Brown, Kelsey Brookes, Ryan Rubnis, Dave Burke, Sean Christopher, L. Croskey, Gayle Etcheverry, Natalia Fabia, Korin Faught, Sarah Folkman, Lauren Gardiner, Antonia Gribnikova, Andrew Hem, Jason Houchen, Sylvia Ji, Caia Koopman, Danielle Lamberti, Tiffany Liu, Jason Maloney, Inky Dreadfuls, Carrie McNinch, Chantal Menard,, Brandi Milne, James Naccarato, Joe O’Neill, Erik Otto, Annie Owens, Joshua Petker, Carlos Ramos, Joey Remmers, Scott Saw, Kathy Stacio Schorr, Jophen Stein, Sean Stepanoff, Nathan Spoor, Sage Vaughn, Vibe 1

– License

Lady Gaga signs copies of her new CD The Fame Monster in West Los Angeles.


Lady GaGa reflects on Fame(Interview)

(Also According to the new Billboard report, Lady GaGa’s new studio album The Fame Monster is expected to sell more than 200,000 copies in its first week:

Billboard.biz – Lady Gaga and her three-pronged sales attack on consumers’ purses is also much stronger than expected. Of the new The Fame Monster deluxe edition, The Fame original version, and The Fame Monster EP, also just issued, the former two combined could sell about 150,000 units while the EP is expected to top 200,000 units.

Billboard prediction:
Susan Boyle – I Dreamed a Dream – 700k
Adam Lambert – For Your Entertainment – 225k
Lady GaGa – The Fame Monster – 200k
Rihanna – Rated R – less than 200k
Lady GaGa – The Fame + TFM Deluxe – 150k)

I just got home from playing Coco Deville….  It was an event for some t-mobile shit…..  So what was in the giftbag????? Not a phone…….it was a mug. WTF?!?!? Awesome.  The crowd was ghetto for Coco……Lots of Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Fly Boys, and lets not forget a lil’ Ginuwine…..Pony got those girls gettin’ low…….Some chick puked in the back and at the end of the night the manager was walking around with a lost bra…….how does that happen.  People were stoked, singing along n’ shit.  My girl and I came up on some crucial iphone accessories…..

I just joined the Next Music Group Dj pool and they gave me a stack of cd’s to go through….. Looking forward to hearing new tunes and tell u whats what.

Getting ready for a big mansion party saturday night!!!!!

Goodnight Peeps!

• Lady GaGa performing “Speechless” with the ballet
  

Lady Gaga performed “Speechless” at the 30th anniversary gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art last night in Los Angeles. It was a live, five-minute production number called “Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again),” in which Lady Gaga debuted her new ballad, “Speechless.”

She played a Steinway grand piano painted in spin-art style by Damien Hirst. Her hat was designed by architect Frank Gehry, and she and Vezzoli donned masks created by filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. Lady Gaga had a dozen dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet, who were wearing costumes created by Vezzoli and Miuccia Prada, head of the famous fashion house.
 

• Check out the photos of Lady GaGa with Francesco Vezzoli, David LaChapelle and Perez Hilton in the audience.

Beverly Hills Hotels Special offers http://www.tourla.info/forum/topics/beverly-hills-hotels-special

Songbird and I spent a beautiful day in LA together in honor of falling completely head over heels for each other this autumn day six years ago in Madrid. We followed our whims and let the day unfold as it may. First we stopped for breakfast at BLD. I had some gigantic blueberry ricotta pancakes and Jim had a frittata with chorizo which was delicious! After which we happen to chance on a pet adoption park day and played with the cute pups and kitties.

We then dash across to Family, a great literary gem and comic bookstore.

There we got each other some smashing gifts. For Songbird, a book by John Fahey, “How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life” and for moi, Jean Luc Goddard’s “Made in USA.”

From there we cruised some vintage shops, as well as Plastica (since our friends just collaborated on a sweet video for the shop), then Joan’s on 3rd market, and ultimately ended our outing with lunch at Mozza, Mario Batali’s pizza joint.

We then made our way home, cuddled on the sofa and watched ‘Made in USA,’ eating some pumpkin pie with a lovely cup of coffee to round down the evening.

Lovely food, lovely inspiration, lovely day, lovely company.

Songbird and I will be celebrating our 6 year anniversary of meeting in Madrid.  To celebrate our love, he arranged for us to see Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions at the Mayan Theater, Downtown in support of their new album “Through the Devil Softly.” I adored the 2001 “Bavarian Fruit Bread” album and always regretted not seeing her live before so I was so pleased when I heard new songs on the radio a few months back.  Stand outs from the new album for me include songs, ‘Thinking Like That,’ “Blue Bird,’ and ‘For the Rest of Your Life.” You can sense how choice each word in every lyric is in relation to the melody; Every element is so crafted and warmly curated.

Hailing from East LA, I have long admired Hope Sandoval’s low-fi hypnotic vocals paired with shoe-gazey melodies.  I remember listening to my sister’s Mazzy Star album over & over as young pre-teen and longing for unrequited love.  She has such a sense of mystery and quiet power to her.  Known to be deeply private, it was interesting to see her live and marvel at the audience she pulled in.  I felt like I was in a weird time warp between the nauties & the nineties and a century past.  The coolest part was that she hired a projectionist to improv to the music.  The visuals were so hauntingly beautiful and apt– abstract dancing ballerinas, reoccurring light distortions, 1920s film noir.

Thanks for sharing your warm songs, for our warm hearts, Hope.

Just booked my flight for the 140Conference L.A., or #140conf as it’s known on Twitter.

At the #140conf NY VIP Party in June 09. Click for more pix.

Zooooooooom. Check out more info & background on the event here: http://lax.140conf.com/

I am SO FREAKING EXCITED. I can’t even tell you how amped I am to be there, meet new people, learn from them and push our real-life connections deeper. I know you’re reading me here but this site > click < is my focus. In L.A., I’ll be focused on meeting people who create content around food & booze, or who are doing innovative things with video. and I can’t wait to learn from other people who are running their own businesses and leveraging social media on how to do that better and more consistently.

• Going to #140conf L.A.? Check out some hotels near the event venue > here < (link courtesy of @PAWeissenstein via @geogeller).
• If you’re going to L.A. and want to connect, please say hi @EmilysPearl.
• Not familiar with Twitter yet? Read my post about it here.

See you in L.A.!!!

]]> http://honeycombed.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/pistas-the-curious-palate-satisfied-my-curiosity/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:37:54 +0000 honeycombed http://honeycombed.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/pistas-the-curious-palate-satisfied-my-curiosity/

I’m always in search of new places to eat and I am so excited to have found this quaint cafe by my workplace.  Just between Inglewood Blvd and Centinela on Venice Blvd sits, an orange building to a cafe named The Curious Palate.  I went on my own on a Monday and went back for lunch three days in a row to take my hubby one day and my boss the next… and I keep going back to try new things or reorder new favorites.

Their Mac ‘n Cheese is really amazing.  I usually hate the stuff because I was raised eating copious amounts of it but this place has restored fondness and surpassed my expectations.  Their sandwiches and soups are surprising yet utterly tasty and delightful.  And they make their own jams, have a cheese counter/deli/ pantry shop with great stuff.  The tarts are also yummy! They work with local farmers and artisan producers so everything is ultra fresh and super quality. And everyone that works there is so friendly.  It has a feeling of low-key Williamsburg/Brooklyn or Portland moreso than LA pretense.

Finding it just now for this fall season has made it so cozy to have a bit comfort food and a taste of autumn’s bounty.

And here I sit, in clear-skied smoke-free San Francisco reading pleas for support from overloaded SPCAs and wildlife rescues, reading worried tweets and statuses from threatened homeowners, reading sensationalized air quality warnings from local news media.

A couple of years ago I was in the blissfully cellular-free, TV-free zone known as Big Sur while the Griffith Park Fire raged. The fire was 100% contained before I learned of the imminent danger that blazed so close to my pets, my friends, my most prized possessions, my house. Mandatory evacuations less than a half-mile away while I was stoking a fire in giant stone fireplace, in a cabin by a creek, enjoying a great dinner after a long day of hiking.

A terrifying and surreal world to fall back into, evoking gratitude for the near-miss. The charred hillside above was a continual reminder of how easily all could be destroyed.

And here I sit, in clear-skied smoke-free San Francisco. The flames are much further away from my house in LA, and the most-prized possessions filling it belong to someone else now. An insurance settlement would cover my tangible loss, but the memories, the care, and the love I poured into it during the restoration of that house are irreplaceable.

So I am worried. About those whose homes are closer to the fire and at risk of losing everything. About everyone whose breathing in soot. And I worry about the animals who have been displaced.

And once again I find myself far away during a fire. And some part of me feels threatened by it too. I guess some connections never die.

I am so excited!  There is finally a farmer’s market in Hawthorne.  For some time Songbird and I had complained that we didn’t feel as much apart of the community and we would often travel to Santa Monica for the farmer’s market or do our organics/fresh fruit and veggie shopping in Manhattan Beach.  Now I can do it in my own neighborhood!

I had recently stopped by my favorite bakery, Rockenwagner in Culver City and as I was looking up their website I noticed that they sold their baked goods at the Hawthorne Farmer’s Market.  I had had no idea!  It had been running since the end of June.

Saturday morning, Songbird and I were in a funk and decided to check the market out, which sits in the middle school parking lot on 135th and Aviation.  As soon as we arrived to the fresh flowers, baked breads, tarts, cakes and cookies, fresh fish, veggies, fruits, etc, our mood instantly lifted.

We came home and started up the bbq and had a feast! What a glorious day!

We got two nice small trout, stuffed them with parsley, garlic, lemon zest, and drizzled spanish olive oil and white white on ‘em, then put them on the grill.  Within minutes we had a lovely lunch, paired with some Hooegarden and roasted red peppers and rosemary potatoes as side dishes.  By far the best meal we had had in ages!

Support your local farmers! xoxoxo

“We go west,” she said,

“through the Beverly Hills

and then father on.”

 

I let the clutch in

and drifted around the corner

to go south to Sunset.

Dolores got one of her

long brown cigarettes out.

 

“Did you bring a gun?”

she asked.

 

Catherine Corman photographs Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, with captions by Chandler and an essay by Jonathan Lethem.

 

The Paris Review

 

 

]]> http://ondeequetaoze.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/a-invasao-latina/ Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:36:23 +0000 diegoarelano http://ondeequetaoze.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/a-invasao-latina/

O Zé tá nos Estados Unidos. Ou seria México? Ou Cuba?

Enfim, pelos Estados Unidos passei por quatro grande cidades (no que se refere a tamanho mesmo). Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami e Nova Iorque. Mas a impressão que deu é que eu estava em algum país da América Latina.

Que na Flórida o espanhol é o idioma mais falado e a população de latinos já é mais da 50%, todo mundo sabe. Quando estava em Miami, era comum as pessoas me atenderem primeiro em espanhol quando estava em restaurantes e lojas.  Apenas em caso de você não dominar a língua, eles trocam para o inglês.

Em Los Angeles a impressão foi também muito parecida. Isso devido à grande concentração de mexicanos. Eu diria que enquanto os latinos da Flórida vêm de Cuba, Porto Rico, e a América Latina em geral, na Califórnia, eles vêm só do México mesmo. É fácil perceber um estilão mais “chicano” por lá. Arquitetura, estilo das pessoas e a forma como se comunicam. Eu só não tinha ideia de que era tanto.

Em Las Vegas, a presença latina era um pouco menor em comparação às duas cidades anteriores, mas ainda sim, bastante forte. Nas ruas, minha impressão era de que 50% da vozes falavam em inglês e a outra metade em espanhol.

Por fim, Nova Iorque também não ficou pra trás. Andando pelo Times Square, acho que o espanhol era o mais falado. Seguido pelo português. Em uma ocasião, pegando o elevador no Madame Tussauds , estava eu, uma mulher de uns quarenta anos, um outro casal e mais duas meninas de uns 15 anos. E não é que todo mundo era brasileiro. No meu albergue, as duas faxineiras eram dominicanas, o atendente era do Peru e até o cara que me atendia no Subway vizinho era do Panamá. Era assim, todo mundo de um canto diferente dessa americazona.

E em termos de comunicação, como é que fica? Em Miami é incontestável. Se deixar a população latina de lado é pedir pra ser esquecido. E não é por menos que a grande maioria (bem esmagadora mesmo) dos outdoors, flyers, spots de rádio e outras mídias eram 100% em espanhol. Só não digo isso de televisão porque eu não assisti.

Encontrei inúmeras peças em espanhol também na Califórnia e em Las Vegas. As marcas direcionam para o público mexicano (ou descendente dele) mesmo. Sem nenhuma dó ou pudor. “Se você é americano e não entende espanhol, azar o seu, meu público entende é ele que eu quero atingir.” Só por esse fato, já dá pra ter noção do tamanho que é a comunidade latina por lá. Se existem anúncios direcionados a eles, é por que é vantajoso pras empresas, ou seja, são eles que estão dando retorno financeiro.

E  para minha surpresa, Nova Iorque seguiu na mesma linha. Mesmo distante das fronteiras latinas, a população estrangeira que vive lá, mais a grande quantidade de turistas, já é o suficiente para proporcionar também peças publicitárias em espanhol.

E assim, os Estados Unidos vai aumentando a sua população latina e os americanos americanos mesmo vão perdendo espaço. É bom o Tio Sam começar a praticar esse spanglish!

]]> http://honeycombed.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/fourth-anni/ Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:29:26 +0000 honeycombed http://honeycombed.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/fourth-anni/

Songbird and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday.  Lovely. Lovely. Lovely. Lovely.

We started the day with hubby making some delicious brioche french toast.  We each spent the day finding and planning the perfect anni gifts.  Songbird went to Reform School in Silverlake after having a bit of grooming done at Sugar hairsalon.  I insisted that Songbird stop by Ladyboy in Echo Park to pick up a new pair of his signature shoes and then I went to one of my favorite shop for gifts, Firefly on Abbott Kinney in Venice to pick another little gift.

gift for songbird: pictorial webster's

We then met at home and Songbird had me open my gifts before heading for a meal at Cafe Stella, a quaint french restaurant in Silverlake.

anni gifts for cristi: for like ever tote & the red balloon children's book

After dinner at the bar, we headed over to the Echo.  Songbird surprised me with tickets to see J. Tillman, my favorite artist/musician of this decade, earlier in the week and I had been anticipating the show with so much excitement.  J. with a full band, played songs spanning all of his albums.  He seemed a little sleepy at first, starting with his more melodic Nick Drakesque tunes, then got into his CrazyHorse/Niel Young rockin’ out trance.  I must admit, I was a little disappointed because I’ve been so into his albums and this show in LA seemed to lack the passion, humor and depth I was hoping to experience from his live show.  In any event, it made me think about how hard it must be to pour something of yourself, this creative expression that was once private, for a live audience.

After the gig, Songbird and I went over to the band and J. to thank them for the show.  Songbird told J. how it was our fourth anniversary and I chimed in saying how I was so impress Songbird got him to play for our anni.  J. chuckled.

take care

new imperial grand blues

]]> http://sevuoiunconsiglio.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/michael-jackson/ Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:10:59 +0000 scarpedaginnastica http://sevuoiunconsiglio.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/michael-jackson/

E dire che fino a poco tempo fa non avrei comprato neanche un disco, ora lo ascolto in continuazione, è che questo fatto mi ha colpito proprio tanto, e poi le sue sono davvero delle belle canzoni.. alcune le ha copiate (vedasi You Are Not Alone – da due autori belga), ma sono proprio fatte bene

Michael Jackson, King Of Pop

 

 

Grande Michael, Re Del Pop

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