UnHip LA

When L.A. was experiencing its last heat wave, I drank lots of coconut juice to keep cool, pretending that I was on a tropical island.  It was fun and made the heat bearable.  I drank a few different varieties including:

   
         $0.79                         $0.99

Both were pleasant, but the one on the right tasted more natural.
I was happy with both of these, but then last week, I saw a bunch of real, fresh, young coconuts sitting together in the produce section for only $0.79 each.

 

I didn’t know one could buy these things ready to drink like this.  I’ve paid $2.50 - $3.50 in restaurants to drink out of a coconut and now I learn that they only cost $0.79!*  Woah!  So, I bought one and took it home, but it sat in my fridge for a few days because I didn’t know how to open it.  I thought I might have to get a drill.  Table D’Hote tried to explain it to me, but I couldn’t quite grasp the bludgeoning that I would have to do.  So then I brought my coconut over to Wandering Chopsticks and she showed me how to crack the nut:

1. Get a cutting board and cleaver.

 

2. Then quickly chop of just enough of the top to open the nut without spilling the juices all over (you will spill some).  Our first strike was not close enough, hence the little cap there.  Second strike was a success:

 

3.  Yummy coconut milk:

 

4. Partay!

 

This was a delicious drink, much better than a bottle or canned variety obviously.  And it seemed to have more liquid than the bottle on the right.  I think these would make a fun party drink, maybe I’ll tote some to the next potluck I go to.  First I’ll practice cleaving at home. 

Thanks to Table D’Hote and Wandering Chopsticks for educating me about coconuts.  Both blogs are on my blogroll. * This fine young coconut came from:
Quang Hoa Supermarket
350 W. Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755
(626) 571-6799 

http://a.placebetween.us/

helps you find a location in between you and people you want to meet up with.  Just enter your addresses and a google map will appear with suggestions for a good middle ground.  Got friends in Santa Monica and Burbank and you’re in Arcadia?  The site suggests meeting here.
Sounds good to me! 

 

This Friday, September 28, the Music Center will host a free Bhangra dance night with DJ Sandeep Kumar and lessons by Achinta of the Blue13 Dance company. How fun!  What is Bhangra?  It’s a folk dance and music form from Punjab that has been fused with hip hop moves and featured in many Bollywood movies.

Bhangra dance is also a great adult P.E. activity, so this will be adult P.E. idea #3!  You can take classes with the Blue School.  Or get the Bollywood Workout DVD. I’ve had lots of fun with my DVD but know it’s nowhere near what Aishwarya or Bipasha do in the movies. Well, you gotta start somewhere! 

Bhangra Dance Downtown 
Friday, Sept. 28, 6:30 pm - 10 pm.
The Music Center
135 North Grand Ave., between Temple & 1st
Los Angeles, CA

P.S.  I was just told a secret place for free parking downtown near the Music Center.  If you want to know, leave a comment and I will get back to you.  It’s super secret….   

(Photo credit) 

*** UDPATE ***  We went to this and it was great fun!  We learned moves called "alligator, Indian airlines, turn the door knob, pat the dough….."  So much fun!  I definitely would take a class with the Blue School if I were in the ‘hood.  The great thing about Bhangra - you can totally be doing it wrong but you won’t look that off.  It’s an aerobics workout without the annoying counting of reps thing. Just dance and have fun. When the instructor Achinta separated us into two groups who faced each other, it was like a dance-off, showdown, Michael Jackson style.  My first time doing that, and I would love to do it again.

If you love Los Angeles, love researching it, wanna know more about it, then head over to the Huntington Gardens this Saturday for their free:

Second Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar
The Second Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar will be Saturday, September 29, 2007 from 10:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Huntington Library, Arts Collection and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. Join us and interact with Southern California’s premier well-known and lesser-known archival resources. If you enjoy Southern California history or researching any topic on Los Angeles history then you cannot afford to miss the 2007 L.A. Archives Bazaar. Download a printable PDF version of the LA Archives Bazaar Poster (3.6MB). For more information, please contact lasubj@usc.edu.

Free programs include:  "Researching in your Jammies" and "What to do with your collection if your kids don’t want it." 

Free admission, parking, and lunch!  To visit the gardens though, you have to pay the $15 admission fee (for adults); it is open 10:30 am - 4:30 pm. 

*** UPDATE ***

I paid a visit to the bazaar, and my, was it hopping!  Tons of librarian-types wandering around and collecting information.  I learned that the Filipino American Library does bus tours of Historic Filipino Town and that there is a Los Angeles sports museum and archive set up after the 84 Olympic Games in L.A.  Interesting.  Pics from the day:

 

 

I’ve been drinking boba for 10 or so years now, always suspecting it wasn’t good for me, but loving it too much to stop.  Recently, I found a few different sites which give the calorie content in milk tea boba. Lollicup’s 16 fl. oz boba is 440 calories. Oh no!!!!
http://www.dietfacts.co … oba-milk-tea-41829.htm

Its Honey Green Tea (16 fl. oz) without boba is 181.6 calories:
http://www.dietfacts.co … ey-green-tea-41842.htm

Boba balls are reputed to have 7 -15 calories each!  Typically there are 20-30 or so balls per drink.  Adding milk is a no-no too:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16540633/

Finally, be wary of high fructose corn syrup:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/

Drink your boba responsibly folks! ===ooo=oo==oo (That’s boba in a straw.)
This public service announcement brought to you by UnHipLA.com.   I have now switched from boba milk tea to honey green tea (pictured above far left).

P.E. for Adults, entry #2:  Table Tennis in the SGV

Ever feel like a game of badminton or table tennis at 4am?  Well, there’s a place for you. It’s the San Gabriel Valley Badminton Club on Telstar in El Monte.  Open 24 hours a day, with bad-ass looking coaches, this center is for both serious and recreational players.  For non-members, it costs $7 for all-day play (you can leave and come back); however if you want to reserve a court, it costs $20 an hour per group.  The place is open 24 hours a day for members and for non-members closes at midnight (opens 9 am). 

I’ve been here twice and have almost thrown my shoulder out both times.  My friends had fun though.  AND there is also access to ping pong tables, which is included in the $7 entry fee, or just pay $5 for ping pong.  So if you’re really jonesing for some pong action, you can drive yourself over here. They have vending machines too. 

San Gabriel Valley Badminton Club
9255 Telstar Ave.,
El Monte, CA  91731
Phone: (626) 307-4650
FAX: (626) 284-9105 
www.sgvbc.net 

 

Pistachio Kulfi at Saffron Spot in Artesia.  So good….

Saffron Spot
18744 Pioneer Blvd.
Artesia, CA 90701
(562) 809-4554
www.saffronspot.com

I was desperate for a salad and this was a great late-night option.  Jack’s Southwest chicken salad is pretty tasty and only $4.59!  I’ve gotten it a few times. 

 

Your choice of grilled (pictured) or crispy chicken.  

 

This Friday, the Audubon Center at Debs Park is leading a free bird walk at 7pm and then showing two bird documentaries at 8pm: Eyewitness: Bird (English with Spanish subtitles, 30 min) and Ocean Oasis (Spanish with English subtitles, 60 mins).  This sounds like a lovely date idea!  The film will be shown outside in the center’s courtyard, free admission and refreshments too.  On the walk, you might see an owl and other night birds.  I suspect a lot of families and kids will be there.  The next bird walk and film showing is October 5.  Bring a sketchbook and a flashlight. 

Audubon Center at Debs Park
4700 North Griffin Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90031
Off the Arroyo Seco Parkway (110 FWY) between Ave 43 and 52.
323-221-2255
www.laaudubon.org
www.audubondebspark.org
www.pasadenaaudubon.org 

Afterwards, you might want to check out the Slow Dancing installation or the parking lot after partay!  And use this site to help you find some late-night grub.  This is your evening planned by UnHip LA.

 

This Friday in L.A., artists, architects, environmentalists, and community groups will be turning parking spaces into mini-public parks.  Imagine pulling up to a meter and seeing sod, grass, a bench, and conceptual art there instead.  It’s Park[ing] Day LA, a day for creating public spaces, even if just for a couple of hours, in a city that needs more of them.  Here’s a video from Park[ing] Day in San Francisco, where the event originated, and here’s where to see more videos and pics of the fanciful installations.

To learn more about the project and find a parking lot near you that will be transformed, click here. There will be a party at the end of day:

Friday, 7 – 10 p.m.
610 S. Ardmore (Public Counsel Parking Lot) Los Angeles, CA 90005
$5 Suggested Donation

Ride your bike! Take Transit!
Parking is scarce in Korea-town and besides, riding your bike or taking transit will keep the spirit of Park(ing) Day alive! (add any bike advice, rides, etc.) Take the bus or train to the Wilshire/Normandie stop and walk a block west to Ardmore. Easy access from Metro bus lines 20, 720 or 206 and the Metro Red/Purple Line (use the Wilshire/Western train - not the North Hollywood one). The party is at the top of the street, just south of 6th.

In Pasadena, advanced PCC art students will be creating an installation here:

Park(ing) as an Art Park:
10:00 am to noon

This event synthesizes many things I love: public art, public space, installation art, education, playful activism, and free parking!

www.parkingdayla.com

*** UPDATE ***  Here’s the LATimes coverage of the day with a happy video.

While I was at Grassroots today, I saw an ad on their bulletin board for this site:

Free-in-LA.com

It lists by dates and city oodles of wonderful, free things happening in L.A.  For example, this Friday, the Audobon center is leading a bird walk and showing a film. I’ve always been curious about this place, which is over the 110 freeway in Highland Park.  Then on Saturday, there’s the Korean festival in Ktown and a Latin Jazz festival in Noho.  And on Sunday, a Thai festival at Barnsdall, Jane Goodall International Peace Day at Griffith Park, and a slew of concerts.  Even the Richard M. Nixon library has a free concert series.  Closer to home, Vroman’s book store in Pasadena hosts a free Sunday night jazz series, ending this month.

So check out the site and click on some links.  It’s pretty spare-looking, easy-to-use, and has a surprising number of typos. With summer now over and L.A. out of events overdrive, it’s nice to know that this site exists.  Yay!  This weekend with the above, Park(ing)DayLA and the slow-mo dance films downtown looks to be very exciting.  This is exactly what makes L.A. a great city, a playground for all.

Saturday night, R and I were scooting around L.A.in her uber-cute Scion and looking for trouble.  On Spring Street in downtown L.A. near Chinatown, where all the fields of corn aka "Not a Cornfield" used to be, we saw a red neon sign that drew us to it like flies.  It read:

As we approached we saw people and heard drums:

Welcome to Under Spring, a public art space under a concrete bridge, previously home to drug users and the homeless. 

Folks mingling Under Spring.

 

This is Glank, a talented percussion band wearing Haz-mat suits, shaking radioactive canisters and playing found objects. They had a great sense of rhythm and probably one of the happier bands I’ve seen in a long time.  They led the audience in clap-a-longs, mingled, and shared their instruments.  A long time ago, I went to a Cacophony Society drum circle in the underground tunnels of Caltech. Seeing Glank brought me back to that time: weird music in a weird setting.  Fortunately, Glank was more harmonious than the beats back then.

Art Under Spring.  If I would have shot from the other angle, you could see another picture.

And inside in Farmlab was a very cool art exhibiit, "Garden of Brokenness," in which a pond was constructed indoors with antiques, funky objects and a big, cute camera.  Fish included.  I loved this whimsical pond and just read on Farmlab’s site that it is being packed up this week!  Oh no! So call them first if you plan to visit.  It might still be there for you.

 

Unfortunately, we came too late for the adult-themed cabaret puppet show, which headlined the evening.  R & I were very happy to stumble upon this weird happening on the edge of downtown.  Read Farmlab’s site for a recap of the evening and their busy weekend of events.  Their calendar is packed with lectures, salons, events, art and music shows.  I love public art spaces and this place is like Barnsdall’s twisted little sister. 

Farmlab seems like it’s a very cool collective of artists, environmentalists, and activists bringing creative solutions to the urban nature needs of L.A.  They kind of remind me of the Los Angeles Urban Park Rangers.  Farmlab is also participating in Park(ing) Day LA when this Friday parking lots will temporarily be turned into public parks.  I’m sad that I missed Farmlab’s summer offerings but their Fall calendar looks just as excellent. 

Farmlab + Under Spring
1745 N. Spring Street, Unit 4
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(323) 226-1158
info@farmlab.org
www.farmlab.org 

 
Cold Tofu’s performing improv this Saturday, Sept. 15 at 7:30pm at the
Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center Auditorium
222 S. Hewitt St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
(Located east of Alameda, between 2nd & 3rd Streets)
$5 admission, no RSVPs needed.  Free parking at Maryknoll and on the street.

Cold Tofu is a (primarily) Asian American comedic improv troupe with 26 years in the biz.  They’re hilarious and good people.  Click here for their calendar, mostly once-a-month shows. The group also teaches improv classes of which I was a student many years ago.  If you want to learn how to take more risks in a safe environment, Cold Tofu classes are the way to go. They’ll teach you how to step off a cliff and not get hurt. 

Oh Yippie!  A free health fair is coming up in Pasadena that will offer diabetes testing and mammograms, for free, I presume.  I’d like to see how that gets accomplished.  It’s very cool that the city is doing this.  I love gathering information and finding new resources.  So if you’re uninsured, this might be a good stop to make.

When: Saturday, Sept. 22, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m
Where: Madison Avenue between Orange Grove Boulevard and Mountain Street
For more information call (626) 683-9492.
Thanks to Proctor for Mayor for the heads-up.  Click his link for more fair info.  There will be cooking demonstrations too.

I love public art (free!) and this looks fantastic at the Los Angeles Music Center.

    

"SLOW DANCING"
West Coast Premiere
Created by David Michalek
Commissioned by the Music Center

Dance at the Music Center proudly presents the West Coast premiere of Slow Dancing. An outdoor installation of larger-than-life, hyper-slow-motion video portraits of extraordinary dance artists from around the world. Also being presented by New York’s Lincoln Center, Slow Dancing simultaneously captures the beauty of the body in motion, while exposing its most intricate nuances.

(Information and photos from the Los Angeles Music Center Website.)

 

Free nightly performances from 6 pm to midnight. (Optimal viewing is said to be after 7:30 pm)
September 18 - 26, 2007 at the Los Angeles Music Center
135 North Grand Avenue. Los Angeles, CA 90012
213/972-7211

This sounds like it would be a great date idea, kinda like going to a drive-in movie, but cooler.  I suggest bringing some grub and drink and having a picnic while you’re at it.  There is food at the center too.  Check their website for details about food, directions, and parking. If you go earlier, you can check out nearby sites such as the Disney Concert Hall, the Catholic Cathedral, MOCA, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, Chinatown…

To learn more about the dancers and read quotations from them about what it was like to be part of this exhibition, click here.  To see some glorious pictures of the dancers, go here.

I’m going to try to identify fun, unhip ways to exercise in the SGV.
Here’s #1:  Free Ping Pong in Alhambra at Almansor Park.  You supply your own paddles and balls.  They’ve got four tables and nets.  Their fall schedule is table tennis daily from 6 - 9 pm, except on Wednesdays, and on the weekends from 12 - 9 pm. 

Almansor Park
800 S. Almansor Ave., Alhambra
(626) 570-5081
Website 

Please comment with P.E. suggestions if you have any, thanks!  I will post about dodgeball later.

This movie looks hilarious!   

 

"Ping Pong Playa, basketball dreams, ping pong genes"
Hopefully the flick will be coming to L.A. soon.  Sign up on their mailing list to get the latest info. The site has a hilarious rap song on it.
www.pingpongplaya.com 

I haven’t caught Huell on the boob tube in quite awhile, but I have to admit the show has a nice calming effect on me.  I’ve fallen asleep in fields of ranunculus while he rambled on….it was trippy and nice.  So the big guy is coming to Pasadena on September 16, 2 pm, at the Westin Pasadena for a free talk.  Details here on the Proctor for Mayor blog.

It pretty much goes without saying that Huell is the king of unhip,  but I said it anyway.  Here’s a recent article about Huell in the Pasadena Weekly / LA City Beat. 

"As part of the Wescom Speaker Series, Howser will discuss his career at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Westin Pasadena, 191 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. Admission  is free, but reservations are required and can be made by calling (888) 493-7266."

Tivoli Terrace, Laguna Beach 

The paparazzi were all over you today!
It was a beautiful day for a beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple! 

 

 

SUGAR HIGH 

In Highland Park, hipsters, unhipsters, gangsters, and families all adore Galco’s, a beverage emporium carrying over 400 different brands of soda pop, beer, water, and drink.  The spacious store, which has been family-owned for over 100 years and was once a neighborhood grocery, feels like a carbonated museum where old favorites can be appreciated in their vintage labels, alongside a selection of blast-from-the-past candies.  Many of the drinks are from indie bottlers and feature artistic labels and designs (but beware of the lead paints).  There’s a deli, with sandwiches and party platters, in the back and a small indoor area with plastic patio furniture to eat at.  Party throwers can be seen pushing around their carts and filling them with a colorful selection of unique brews. Diabetics beware.

 

There is no produce here, only 100% CANDY! 

It’s a little odd at first when you realize there is no food on the shelves, only bottles.

This was a delicious vanilla cream soda ($1.39), lightly carbonated, sweet and surpisingly very smooth. It even helped my upset stomach. 

Get on their mailing list to see what new indie beverages will be arriving…
Galco’s
5702 York Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90042
(323) 255-7115
www.sodapopstop.com

As much as I appreciated Galco’s, I prefer to get my weird beverages from Asian markets. Stay tuned for my Aloe Vera juice taste test. 

The next really really free market is tomorrow, September 8 from 9 am to 1 pm in the parking lot of Bresee Nazarene Church in Pasadena.  

Please search my blog for my previous posts on this.  I gotta run now.