UnHip LA

I had no idea….

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-frequent-flier27-2008dec27,0,4622091.story?page=1

A message from Santa Anita Park:

FREE FRIDAYS
We know times are tough, so every Friday, beginning January 2, you will receive FREE General Admission!

Not only do you get Free General Admission, Santa Anita will also have $1 specials on Hot Dogs, Beer, Soda and Popcorn. The first 100 guests will receive FREE Box Seats as well.

—-  I’ve always been curious about this racetrack since it’s right in my ‘hood, but I didn’t want to pay admission because I have no interest in horse racing.  I actually think it’s cruel to make animals race like this. But now with this free admission promo, I might just wander down there and try to pet some horses. The site says there’s a tour you can take of the grounds. You still have to pay a few bucks for parking, but perhaps this can be avoided by parking at the mall and walking over. 

Santa Anita Park
285 W Huntington Drive
Arcadia CA 91007

(626) 574-RACE

www.santaanita.com

Advertised in the Palos Verdes Library:

 

 

Get organized and laugh in the new year!

Here are Christmas lawn decorations from the South Bay, found on Human Google Day.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!

UnHip LA roamed around the South Bay, vowing not to use Google as a resource.  We decided to use our eyes and ears and become human Googles instead.  Look what we found:

 

 

 

 

By following good ol’ street signs, we wound up at the South Coast Botanic Garden, which is "one of the first gardens to be developed over a sanitary landfill."  That doesn’t sound too appealing, but the gardens were nice.  The day was drizzly and a tad gloomy, so the ticket taker let us in for free!  Normally it’s $7 for adults; $5 for students and seniors; $2.50 for children 5 - 12 years old; and free for kids 4 and under.  I enjoyed the small lake, pretending I was in a bayou.

If you become a member of this garden, starting at $25 for seniors, you get free admission to 15 other botanical gardens in Socal, such as Descanso Gardens, the L.A. County Arboretum in Arcadia, and a slew of UC gardens.  Unfortunately, the Huntington Gardens is not part of this hit parade.

South Coast Botanic Garden

26300 Crenshaw Blvd.

Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA 90274

(310) 544-6815

www.southcoastbotanicgarden.org

 

Much media attention lately has been focused on budget ways to have fun and get by.  Take at look at this LA Times series of well-known designers, such as Philippe Starck, shopping at Big Lots and coming up with great looks:

Starck and the other designers emphasize finding simple and basic items and steering clear of the tacky.  I’m impressed by Starck’s place setting for $5.50 each. He also walked away with underwear, towels, and children’s art supplies. 

If you’re jonesing to dine out, I Google-stumbled upon this site, Entertainment.com, which offers a free 14-day membership that contains coupons galore for restaurants, stores, movies, and more.  In particular, I enjoyed their long list of Indian restaurants; Mezbaan, a new favorite Indian restaurant of mine in Old Pasadena, offers a buy one, get one free entree coupon.  Also, there are movie tickets for $6 (plus handling)!   The catch?  As soon as you sign up (with only your email address), the coupons are only good for 14 days, and you’ll most likely get spammed with advertisements.  So be sure to check off the box saying you don’t want ads and/or use an email account that you don’t care about.  Entertainment.com publishes those big coupon books that students sell as fundraisers and are in bookstores.  I have one and have been getting pretty good mileage out of it.  This is how I discovered Mezbaan, their delicious food, and $8 lunch buffet. 

So if you’re budget entertaining or dining out, you still have options! 

I just hope things don’t get so bad for you that you’re eating on $1 a day.

 

Here are photos from Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree Project installation in Old Pasadena, which has now closed.  Read about it here.  See a video about the project here.

 

 

 

 

This man wished for a healthy baby.

Many, many people wished for world peace.  

I finally have the ability to upload my old photos!  Here are a few from August 28, 2008 when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination.  We were at a viewing party at Blair High School in Pasadena, CA.  Read my post about it here.

 

 

 

Actor James Reynolds was the emcee.