Apple Pan yumminess & good company. |
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Happy new year!
I was lucky enough to get to California during my break. Not that I don't adore Milwaukee, but, well, you know. I spent time in Sacramento, Davis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I had delicious food and fun with friends in Davis and Sacramento, and a jolly time in San Francisco. Yes, the MLA convention and Margaret Atwood Society business meeting were indeed a blast, but the highlight in San Francisco was probably the Patton Oswalt show at the Cobb Theatre. He was hilarious, of course, and we were treated to a guest we weren't expecting: Dana Gould! (You might remember him from writing for The Ben Stiller Show and The Simpsons). My BFF Dr. Karma and I had a chance to chat with both of them after the show. Dana Gould was very friendly and gave us some insider anecdotes about the origins of some of our favorite Simpsons episodes. (The PLANET OF THE APES musical: Dana Gould's. Yes, he's that cool).
On the 30th, I left the San Francisco Hilton and took the BART to SFO, where a Southwest flight brought me to LAX. My first time! Justin and Mr. Fabulous picked me up and took me to a dog park in Culver City and then to their place. For dinner, we went to Apple Pan, a pie and hamburger favorite in LA. Justin's friend Jorge took over my camera and took some adorable group shots. After dinner, we had drinks and pool 
Justin & Du |
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and The Joker, a bar that feels like a Milwaukee corner tap (although notably lacking in smokey haze).
New Year's Eve was a terrific day! Justin and I started with a yummy breakfast at Nick's. I hadn't intended to get much exercise whilst in California but I met up with a friend from elementary school (gotta love Facebook!) who took Justin and me on quite the walk. Kevin works in post-production in Santa Monica, so we got to see a real-life post production facility. The employees were buzzing because rumor has it they'll be handling dailies for Lost this month. After we saw Kevin's workplace, we walked to the Third St. Promenade (where I was tempted to pop into the Gap to buy a sweater; I was quite chilly). We then checked out the Santa Monica Pier and then walked to Venice Beach. I was nervous as I've seen AMERICAN HISTORY X, but luckily I was not recruited to a local hate group. Justin and Kevin wouldn't have let that happen to me anyway, I am sure.
On New Year's Day, Justin and Kathy took me on the ultimate tourist drive around Hollywood. We went up into the Hollywood Hills and got quite close to the sign (not a great drive for the easily motion sick), and then down to the Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theater. I compared my hand size to Marilyn's, and briefly wondered where Ali McGraw is today. I bought a cherry diet Coke at 
My pinkies are shorter than Marilyn's. |
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the soda fountain in the Disney store and snuck a pic of Gene Simmons reading the paper. We checked out the Roosevelt. I'm not going to go so far as to say that I, too, think it's haunted, but there is definitely some energy in that place. And candles. We took a little drive around Beverly Hills, where I saw the Beverly Hills Hotel and asked Justin and Kathy if they'd ever seen THE SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS. They hadn't, but Justin said that Natasha Lyonne is in some bad shit, like drugs. I sure hope that's not true; I like her so much. For dinner, we went to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, which is just as incredible as you think it is. I am still thinking about the mac and cheese and the real lemonade. We were home early and watched THE VISITOR, one of the best films from 2008. The story was the perfect balance of moving and subtle, and the acting was freaking amazing. Richard Jenkins is more versatile than Meryl Streep.
On Friday, after a kick-ass breakfast (pancakes the size of frisbees!) at the Griddle on Sunset, we drove to Watts to check out Watts Towers. (Yes, I have wonderful friends who were willing to drive their Stratus with Illinois plates through Inglewood for me. They rock). There is some restoration going on so we couldn't get in the gates, but Watts is definitely a cool thing to check out, you know, during the day. 
I think he was counting the typos in LA Weekly |
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(Thank you for the tip, Globetrekker).
Justin and Kathy are continuing the tradition of Food Night here in LA, and tonight I cooked. My friend from all the way back to the second grade and his wife Laura came, and my friend from grad school Paul and his wife Olivia were here, and Justin's friends Karen and Shawn from college as well. And I hope they keep hanging out long after I'm gone.
So a few things I've learned about LA: parts of it look and smell like Mexico. While everything is crazy expensive compared to my down-to-earth, Midwestern sensibilities, it's not as spendy as San Francisco, where you're charged a 5% tax on imaginary purchases. Also, I thought I'd see celebrities constantly on the streets and in restaurants. I imagined literally tripping over celebrities, but the only one I saw was a friend of Justin and Kathy's who was invited over, so that doesn't probably count as a bona fide celebrity sighting. Word is they're all out of town right now anyway, so maybe next time I visit I'll see Kiefer Sutherland get into a shitfaced scuffle. Dare to dream. Another thing: not everyone is plastic, self-centered, and rude. I've met some really great people here (granted, most of them aren't from here, but that's neither here nor there).
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