I’ve been busier than usual but I got wind of a few interesting sounding events:
a re-enacted mysterious air raid in Long Beach today
a bonsai-a-thon at Huntington Gardens today
and a modern Samurai exhibit to open at the Pacific Asia Museum.
Hope you can google can find more….Sorry…short on time….and have to be up at 4 am!
This CNN article says it’s not. Well, we’ll see. Last night’s Academy Awards was pleasantly India-dominated. I enjoyed seeing the Indian song and dance numbers from Slumdog Millionaire, and hearing the speeches of the Indian winners which seemed to be less self-centered than the speeches of others. Jai Ho! Indian Composer A.R. Rahman has made his country very proud after having won two Oscars in one night for best score and song. I wonder if the Academy is more globally focused now due to Obama’s presidency.
Go here and enter in some text. Hit submit and out comes your wordle, word art. Click on Wordle.net’s gallery to see some samples. Words that are repeated will appear larger. If this makes no sense to you, please just go to the site and play around. It is super cool! If you’re a teacher, this could be a fun classroom activity. If you fetishize words and fonts, you’ll be in heaven here. This site is great too for those who are challenged in the graphic design area but want to make cool looking signs.
See a wordle of this blog entry at unhipla’s wordle gallery. This one’s my favorite unhipla wordle so far.
So I’ve now been to Fresh & Easy in Alhambra three times and can say this - I don’t like the shopping experience there. The aisles are smaller than most grocery stores, so it’s hard not to run into someone. I felt cramped and cornered there. Also the ready-made food section looked very uninspired. I could not bring myself to buy anything from there. I do, however, like the tea section; it seemed to have more unique teas than most stores and A LOT cheaper at $2.15/box. Whole Foods did not have chocolate tea, but Fresh & Easy did. (I just saw that Trader Joe’s sells tea cheaper than Fresh and Easy.) I did get some Fresh & Easy chocolate granola bars that were hearty and tasty. I did not look forward to checking myself out though. As I was bagging my groceries, another family started scanning their purchases, so their stuff collided with mine. Grrrr! After shopping at F & E, I have decided I like the little luxury of having a clerk and bag person. F & E makes Ralphs seem like a spa. I did see a lot of families shopping at F & E, so I’m guessing there are good deals on meat and produce. I’m really more of a ready-made, frozen, and snack shopper, so perhaps my views of F & E are not the norm. Also, I think the rainy weather has made me more cross than usual. Grrrr!
Sadly I must report that some cookies I bought from Whole Foods on Arroyo Parkway were two to three months expired. I hadn’t realized this until I took them home and bit into one of the stale, dry lumps A friend told me that he has found expired goods at Trader Joe’s as well. I called Whole Foods and informed them of the bad cookies. Then I went to the Whole Foods on Foothill to buy fresher cookies AND this WF had expired boxes on the shelf as well! For shame, Whole Foods, for shame. And that goes to you too Trader Joe’s. Are stores trying to trick us poor recession shoppers into buying old food? I really don’t think it’s that hard for workers to check for expiration dates and clear out the old It just never occurred to me that cookies would have expiration dates, but the cookies I bought were organic, so I guess they’re not the type of cookies to bring into a bomb shelter.
The clerk who took my expired cookies was indifferent to the whole transaction, as if this happened regularly I just wasted my time and gas to return expired food (in the rain!); the least WF could do is apologize. The lesson to be learned here - check expiration dates on food products, especially in a recession. I think this would be a good topic for a news article. I unfortunately do not have the time to investigate. This has been a public service announcement brought to you by UnHip LA.
….in Pasadena! Today I was driving uphill Lake Avenue, just north of Huntington Boulevard, and I was amazed by all the water flowing down the street. It was like a waterfall or small rapids. The driveways of the houses also had water gushing down from them, adding to the street torrent. I felt like me and my car were doing a little white water rafting. I hope none of the houses experience mudslides.
I’ve been meaning to blog about Burrito Kingdom in Alhambra, CA, the place where I go for my carnitas taco fix. I’ve been to this place many, many times, and I am in love with their carnitas taco, which is juicy and spicy (with salsa) and always tasty. I have not tried many other things on this menu mainly because I have been so pleased with the carnitas taco. Why stray from a good thing? This is the best carnitas taco I’ve had in L.A.! At $1.50 each, the price is recession right with each taco having much more meat than most taco truck fare. The freshly chopped onion is great too.
Burrito Kingdom
526 N. Atlantic Blvd., Alhambra, CA 91801
626-284-4809
Tops in Alhambra also has good tacos but just not as flavorful as Burrito Kingdom’s.
826LA, a non-profit writing and tutoring center, is having its First Annual Winter Ball on Saturday, February 14, 2009, from 9 pm to 2 am, at the Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Though the day is Valentine’s, the invite stresses this is not a VD-themed event. Singles are welcome. The $30 admission (in advance; $40 at door) goes to fund 826LA’s educational programs. This is a formal event; floor-length gowns, tuxes, gems, and coiffed do’s are all encouraged, but be creative about it. "Please don’t worry, this is a fun modern Ball. No old timey’ music and you do not have to ballroom dance."
At Whole Foods on Arroyo Parkway, you can get a 2 taco plate with rice and beans for $5.29 (or thereabouts) at the 2nd floor restaurant. That’s a pretty good deal for Whole Foods. The plate was good too, not exactly savory, but good in a healthy, filling way. I suppose if you slather it with hot salsa it could be even better. I had the carnitas and chicken taco plate. The chicken was better than the carnitas.
Also while I was at Whole Foods, I stocked up on my new favorite wunder-cookie - Erin Baker’s organic breakfast cookie mini’s. I will blog about them later!
Take your date to see "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi," Shahrukh Khan’s latest Bollywood romantic comedy offering. It’s playing at the Naz 8 in Artesia. The movie is about an older man who has an arranged marriage with a younger woman (who has a tragic back story), and how he tries to woo her by entering a dance contest. The movie has Bollywood heart and soul all the way and gets pretty philosophical about what true love really is. It steered clear of paneer (cheese) somehow and just told a satisfying story with comical yet touching acting by Shahrukh Khan and his forlorn co-star Anushka Sharma. The soundtrack is outstanding as well, very poetic and dance beat-y at the same time. Though I don’t understand the lyrics, I know the songs are about love and finding your true partner. The Hindi word kuch = love something (Thanks Soni). My favorite song is Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai.
I was first introduced to Bollywood fare via Abhishek Bachchan whom I adored, but now I have finally discovered the greatness of SRK. He delivers time and time again, and picks better projects than Abhi does. SRK’s work seems more mature and deep than Abhi’s, yet at the same time very charming and highly entertaining. I drool for SRK.
After you see the movie, I suggest dining in Artesia. Any restaurant would probably offer you a spicy and seductive meal. Happy Valentine’s Day! Here are my former posts on my lovely trips to Little India, Artesia, here, here, here, here, and here. Anyone have any restaurant suggestions for Little India? If you go, you’ll most likely have an uncrowded and pleasant Valentine’s Day!
*** UPDATE *** SRK is in another movie playing at the Naz 8 too. It’s called Billu Barber. I have not seen it yet.
I visited the new Fresh & Easy in Alhambra on Sunday. It was hopping! I think Fresh & Easy has hit pay dirt with this location, which is across the way from Target, and in an area that needed a grocery store. The store is large and has more product variety than I thought it would, especially in bath products. I guess I was expecting a much smaller, more boutique-y store. This is more like a nice-looking 99-cent store. Some items seemed really cheap (cookies); others did not (frozen Indian food). I bought a bag of salad which quickly wilted. The pink Princess cupcakes were disappointing. I was impressed by the tea selection and got a tasty chocolate-flavored black tea box for $2.15. The store is from England, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the tea selection. I am not sure if I will be a Fresh & Easy regular though as I was not too impressed with the ready-made food selection. It was not that cheap! I also had some difficulty at the self-checkout, paying for my bananas twice. A clerk had to delete one purchase. It was kinda annoying. I think the reason I was so not thrilled by Fresh & Easy is I have been to grocery stores in London and was thinking this would be modern and cool like those. I will give Fresh & Easy another chance though. Be forewarned - at Fresh & Easy you check yourself out and bag your own groceries. I could see this being a problem with people who are not familiar with computers, such as my mother.
Just got this from my Nucleus email newsletter:
Nucleus Sketch Book Society Sessions
Every Wednesday | 6:00PM - 9:00PM
The Sketch Book Society is an informal club for professional and aspiring artists to gather, share, draw, and inspire one another. Hang out and meet local artists in a relaxed atmosphere while gaining some pencil mileage. Complimentary refreshments are served.
On February 18, 2009 we will hold a special session with a live model. Tickets for this session are $15.00 per person. For more information, click here.
Also, Nucleus is renting out space for serious artists in their loft workspace above their gallery.
(626) 458-7482 | 210 East Main St Alhambra, CA 91801 | Mon-Thur: 12pm-9pm, Fri-Sun: 11am-10pm
What a great title! LACMA is hosting a free lecture on looking at art. Here’s its blurb:
"Milton Esterow, editor and publisher of ARTnews, talks about the international art scene, the art market, art journalism, art criticism, and changes in taste and fashion, followed by questions from the audience. Born in New York City, Esterow was a reporter for the New York Times and specialized in cultural affairs. He has lectured extensively both in the United States and abroad and is the author of The Art Stealers. Since he bought ARTnews from Newsweek Magazine in 1972, Esterow has guided its growth into the most widely circulated art magazine in the world. Under his direction, ARTnews has won most of the major journalism awards presented to magazines; ARTnews editors and reporters have been honored thirty-two times for excellence in reporting, criticism, and design."
Free, no reservations needed.
February 5 | 7:30 pm | Bing Theater,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90036
tel 323 857-6000
tel 323-857-0098 (TDD)
www.lacma.org
Check here for more free talks and screenings at LACMA. Get an art history education for free! Some of my favorite moments in college were sitting in an art history lecture, with huge slides of art before us, and hearing the professor discuss them.
The Riverside Dickens Festival is this weekend, February 6-8, 2009. Have tea with Queen Victoria, enjoy a Victorian Era fashion show, performances, and much more.
Could the Long Beach bunnies ever reach this rabbit’s 4-foot stature?
Thanks to Super Punch for the link.
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