the photo one

August 15

2008-08-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds

August 10

2008-08-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

August 9

2008-08-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

August 8

2008-08-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

South Park Cafe:

Halibut pâté. (Joyce's dish.)

I ate rabbit! It tasted like the best chicken I've ever had.

Profiteroles with Grand Marnier ice cream. (Bryan's dessert.)

Flourless carrot cake with Grand Marnier ice cream. (My dessert.)

Apple crepe maybe? (Shirley's dessert.)

August 7

2008-08-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

Tore my stupid pants. That is not shadow, it's dirt.

Damn dirty ~~ape~~ sock.

Damn dirty ~~sock~~ bandage.

Scraped my new water bottle!

August 4

2008-08-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Trying a new lollipop: maple bacon.

That is exactly what it tastes like.

It's kind of weird. I'm not a big fan.

Detail of how textured it is. Those are giant pieces of bacon, folks.

July 31

2008-07-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

You'd think they wouldn't sell the quarantined duck eggs.

Hot Kid in the City

July 30

2008-07-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

Geoducks are scary huge.

July 29

2008-07-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

Pork endgut.

Pork bung.

Pork uterus.

Some days it just be like this.

Fun with the local color.

September 23

2007-09-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

Also a pretty sky, but hard to compare to the previous day.

Risotto so fancy that it's served in the pan it's cooked in.

Happy birthday sparkler.

September 22

2007-09-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

Driving to a party proved to be the prettiest thing of the day, and the prettiest thing that I had seen in months, perhaps.

Party time.

These were the two prettiest balloons there.

Kitty time.

September 21

2007-09-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

September 19

2007-09-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

My father posing in his Gin-Walla costume, as well as Arab waiter, old man, tomb raider, and musician.

September 18

2007-09-18T04:44:00.000-07:00

My father posing as a Revolutionary War officer. He made this costume himself.

This one is a Flickr favorite.

September 17

2007-09-17T04:38:00.000-07:00

Smoked gruyere sandwich from Le Pain Quotidienne. Served with radishes, gherkins, mango, olives, sundried tomatoes, cucumber, fresh tomato, cantaloupe, and three mustards.

Samantha photographs her own sandwich, curried chicken salad. And that is a bowl of coffee.

When we drove past this guy the first time, he was dressed in full Darth Vader regalia, minus the helmet. When we swung past again to get a picture, he had taken his cloak off, but he did wave, so that counts for something.

September 15

2007-09-15T03:33:00.000-07:00

Samantha's cat, Zadie.

Zadie is so cute.

And occasionally, looks oddly humanoid.

September 14

2007-09-14T03:14:00.000-07:00

Driving home was a little less spectacular than the trip up.

Fluffier though.

September 13

2007-09-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

So Melissa and I are chilling at her home, talking about whatever people talk about, when she notices a sound that I had not been giving any thought to, because it sounded like sprinklers going off. She informed me, though, that they did not have sprinklers on her street. She looks out the window and gasps, and we go outside.

Water gushing down the street!

Water is seeping up through the cracks in the asphalt.

A LOT of water.

This side of the street had more gushing than the other side.

First time I used flash in a long time. It served its purposes here.

ZOOMGUSH.

And around the bend.

It was a truly astonishing amount of water.

Water that was not only coming around the bend, but pouring down the side of the hill.

And then there was the open pipe that was making the most noise and expelling the most water.

Massive amounts of water.

Onto the main street even!

All this from a burst water main.

It ended up getting fixed the next day.

But not before thoroughly soaking the neighborhood.

Worm's eye view, courtesy of Melissa.

September 12

2007-09-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

Drivin' on up (driiiivin' on up) to the East Bay (driiivin' on up!)

These are mountains around Gorman. They are pretty, but even prettier in spring when they are all covered in greenery.

Driving on the Grapevine when leaving LA is pretty, but the grade is so steep that it wears on your car and is ultimately unpleasant.

Taking pictures of the sun will one day be the death of my camera.

These clouds look like the softer, thinner fur that cats have closer to their body that gets stuck in your throat during shedding season.

These clouds look like lines of majesty triumphantly presenting the big submarine cloud.

And now, one million sunset photos:

September 11

2007-09-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

Pinkberry is a big deal apparently. It's pretty good, but I'm not breaking down walls to get to it.

Kraken Attackin however? GOLD.

The artist is a genius.

There are not many cephalopod-themed things that do not make me happy.

Unfortunately, they are expensive. Otherwise I would have considered buying one. Either this one...

...Or this one. Come to think of it, definitely this one.

Interesting.

This too.

And this is just bizarre.

September 10

2007-09-10T02:42:00.000-07:00

Canter's Deli is full of fun people in crazy pink suits with rhinestones that you unfortunately cannot see in this photo. This is why I come here. Oh, and the food.

Also, this is Rupert, my hamster:

September 9

2007-09-09T02:12:00.000-07:00

This day, I I helped Samantha move with her parents and another friend, and it seemed a positive omen that the moving van should be called this.

Samantha's dad with the inside of the van.

I believe in taking farewell photos when you leave a place forever.

September 8

2007-09-08T00:38:00.000-07:00

I think Giant Robot is sort of an annoying concept, mainly only because it attracts really, really annoying people. However, the restaurant? Primo.

A warehouse with lilies...

and more lilies...

...and wooden mural stuff.

These two photos are horrifically bad, but I was clearly not thinking properly.

This is how we were all feeling, for this was the second day of moving Samantha into her new apartment.

Actually, at this point, she knew I was taking her picture, so I told her to swing her hair around. Pretty nifty.

Tal ordered paella. Not only very good, but very pretty.

I can't dislike anything garnished with purple things.

Samantha's dish, amazingly delicious. Yet simple!

I had a seared tuna sandwich, which I mostly got for the mixed fries, which included sweet potato and banana among the potato fries. However, the sweet potato fries numbered few, and the banana even fewer, so luckily, the sandwich was quite delicious to make it worth it.

September 7

2007-09-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, those crystals are not salt, they are sugar. And I am really not a fan of salt, and I am really a fan of sugar, and let me tell you, edamame is better with salt than sugar. That much better.

Yes, I arranged this myself.

I really love raw fish.

I found this on the floor and then put it in a dish that people eat out of. Wretched.

Then Samantha and I walked past a house that was being demolished. Here is the bathroom, which was still standing.

The doorway was the only other thing standing. Everything else had been flattened by a teeny tiny bulldozer.

Turns out, the demolition company was right across the street. Convenient, eh?

I love how the screens are still on the windows, and the meter is still attached to the wall. It makes it seem like these people just jumped and tore the house down, spontaneously.

September 6

2007-09-06T00:29:00.000-07:00

Part of the ever-continuing series of photographs, "Bugs on the Wall of My House," here is a moth. Of some sort.

September 5

2007-09-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

Winnetka Theater.

This looks like poultry to me.

Superbad: 6/10. Not a complete waste of time.

September 4

2007-09-04T00:24:00.000-07:00

Two kinds of tea!

Corn and tofu... match made in heaven. However, I always eat it too soon and singe the inside of my mouth. Every single time.

Fake barbecued pork with snow pea. I like the real stuff better, I must admit.

September 3

2007-09-03T00:18:00.000-07:00

I took no pictures on this day, so here are some older ones from a shopping trip to Target with my mom and my brother.

Astonishing display of typographical error.

Pretty.

That's no fun.

This would be a pretty fun game...for people who like true-false tests. I am not one of them.

HAH.

Pre-haircut.

Bet you didn't know they were subsidized.

September 2

2007-09-02T00:09:00.000-07:00

Bryan was leaving for China on the next day, so we had a final goodbye dinner. Sushi, because what better to eat right before leaving for a trip, one leg of which will be Japan.

The salmon photo is better, but I like tuna better.

I can't really think too hard about this one, because I like most things in it separately, and cooked differently, but together, it has elements that are not appetizing to me, yet it still tastes passable. So I just force it down, really.

Not a bad haircut.

I was not prepared for the flash.

That's more like me.

September 1

2007-09-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

This guy was on my wall on this day. That is all I have for today. Life is slower when I am back in LA.

August 31

2007-08-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

Coming back to LA was a bit of a shock. It was incredibly hot, which is not unusual for LA, but the hottest it had been all month in Europe was probably about 85, and that was only one of the days we were in Prague. So the heat wave was a little hard to get used to.

Luckily, there's ridiculously brightly colored ice cream at Rite Aid. I had none of these flavors.

Samantha and I had a mani-pedi party, and this is her unsuccessful attempt at French-tipping her toes. I thought it was kind of an interesting look.

Eleven days later and my toes still look like this.

My fingers stopped looking like this after a few days though. I am way too much of a fidgety picker to keep nail polish for very long, much as I try.

August 8

2007-08-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

My cousin's cat, Biscot, is ridiculouly adorable.

Fairly miserable day at the Louvre.

The ceiling was leaking, and water was being caught in a giant dumpster.

Ze juxtaposition of the drastically different styles of architecture.

The French really hated the glass pyramids at first, but now they are more easily recognizable than the palace itself. The French are generally opposed to all the new things that are built in Paris, but then they become really, really iconic.

CROWDED.

The big JC! Julius Caesar, that is.

Somewhere in the past year, I cultivated an interest in ceilings.

Winged Victory!

Botticelli. (Pardon the angle. I am short, and this is really big.)

RF= Republique de France

Yep, ceilings.

People have been touching this toe.

I love that John the Baptist looks like a zombie.

This is as much of the Mona Lisa as I was at any point able to see.

By Pierre-Narcisse Guerin. Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus creep up upon and murder Agamemnon, according to the Oresteia. They were some of my favorite plays.

Napoleon crowning Josephine. I always thought it was interesting that Jacques-Louis David chose to paint this instead of the more famous instance of Napoleon snatching the crown away from the Pope and crowning himself instead, thereby demonstrating that the power of the state was greater than the power of the church.

Endymion.

Winged Victory, and all of her admirers, from above.

Here is where they put things that are being repaired/going to a traveling collection maybe?

The Venus di Milo has always been one of my favorites.

I also like her sour expression.

The Louvre catacombs! This stuff was around when the palace was first, first built, before it was called the Louvre, in the Middle Ages.

Yes, the art is beautiful, but the escalators are something else!

Mon oncle.

During a coffee break, my mother checks out my brother's veins. Axel looks on.

I try to make my own coffee foam drawing, but it's not actually that easy. Who knew.

We were still looking for the Egyptian display, and this might have been as close as we got. This is Mesopotamian.

Giant curved mirror makes for good times.

I am a giant.

Axel, many times.

Zoom!

These guys had enough legs to be visible from the front and the side.

Which amounts to about six legs.

Islamic vases.

And then my favorite part, (one of) the sculpture galleries.

It is a reflex to think all statues of muscular men are Hercules. I don't think this one is, actually.

This one might be Hercules. I'm rusty on the labors of.

Pascal.

Pascal is thinking about his drawing.

Homer.

Napoleon was still taller than me.

Telling secrets to the statues.

More Julius Caesar.

Old Man Winter.

All things must come to an end.

The Paris Eye. Just kidding, it's not called that.

Notables: Chambiche and Liberal Bruant.

B. Palissy and H. Rigaud. I don't know who they are.

The Musee d'Orsay and the tip of the Eiffel Tower.

Russian Dolls in St. Michel.

Formerly an old hangout for intellectuals and artists. Now, for men in orange shirts.

Les Sevres.

St. Michel is very quaint.

In a cute shop:

Scrub brushes.

Cheese graters.

Self explanatory.

My mother got this for her friend.

Zombie attack!

Fruitless sangria. (Literally.)

I was singing Victor/Victoria for the rest of the night. I am again now.

Yes, that is a pile of broken plates on the floor. No, I don't know why.

August 7

2007-08-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

Day 1 in France. We were really jet lagged, having arrived at 8:30 am or something ungodly like that, so we did minimal stuff. So we walked around La Défense, which is the major business center of Paris, and is incidentally where my aunt works. (As well as a few of my cousins, which I would learn later.)

This is the actual building where my aunt works. I think it's pretty. This is also the only day that we saw blue sky for several days.

At La Défense was this weird sculpture garden with this weird pool of what are apparently pinwheels on top of giant screws for holding buildings together. That's what my dad said. Not everything he says is accurate. Anyone can feel free to correct me.

This is my 12 year old cousin, Axel. I wouldn't call him hyperactive... but he has more energy than anyone else I know. But then again, I don't know many 12 year old boys anymore.

Aw, Lil Brudder. (He's got the heart of a champion.) (He also left those sunglasses in London, I think, and he bought new ones in Venice. But more on that later.)

My mother, bathing her feet. The water was probably cold.

We then walked around, and saw some of the stuff that decorates the courtyard of La Defense. Not bad for a business park, actually.

This is one of the strange sculptures in the sculpture garden, that someone saw fit to provide with a face. Not bad. I don't know if I would kiss a public statue though.

Then there was this monolith that just looked like a bunch of multicolored wires, and I have no idea what it was made of.

La Grande Arche de la Défense! It is on a single axis with the Arc de Triomphe and the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde.

This is called "In Their Father's Shoes" or something like that. I thought it worked better in silhouette.

This says, "At La Défense/Fascist art/exposes itself with/all impunity/The persistence of F. Pinault/spits in the face/of male and female workers/and reaps the cash." (Roughly.)

I thought this was a very pretty planter.

This was an interesting, er, piece of art. It looks like a bunch of upside-down trees on a tiered trashcan. Except kinda pretty.

I rather like this sculpture.

So do my mom and my brother. It is what they are photographing.

A reflection. I am extraordinarily proud of this photo, and it wasn't a mistake or a coincidence photo! Yay!

Big stripey fountain. From the other side, it looks like the water is running down into the freeway below, but I think it just gets recycled back up through some fancy piping mechanism underneath it.

The ever-present rifle-laden military just walking around. They were EVERYWHERE. And yet, much less aggressive a presence than the American military always is.

Then there was this mall where Axel wanted to buy new tennis shoes because my aunt accidentally threw his other ones away.

We walked through a department store and I saw these. They are essentially nice leather shoes, slapped with several canvas straps. They are in the running for the ugliest things I've ever seen.

This is bar none, my favorite carbonated beverage. I drank it whenever I could in Paris, which only ended up being twice, unfortunately. What makes it particularly delicious is the quinine, which they also put in tonic water. My aunt and uncle bought a bottle for the big dinner we had on the last night we were there, but it was diet and it didn't have quinine in it! Disappointing. Also, I don't know why it says "lemon" and not "citron."

Nice name.

And now, because it is a formula that I love and never gets old to me, many pictures of shiny buildings with clouds reflected in them:

I liked this building the best.

Finally, we went to a grocery store, where I marveled at the differences between their food and ours here in the states.

Cute radishes!

Yellow green beans. (Yellow beans?)

These are both a variety of plum, which are so pretty. I hear they don't taste that good. They might be for making jams and compotes and things like that.

I had never seen fresh sole before! They're so flat! They must be so difficult to fillet!

Loose sardines!

I really wanted to try these, but I didn't. In fact, the only odd flavored chips I had were in London, when I had roast chicken with rosemary flavored ones. They were quite good. I should have had more, like the shrimp cocktail and roast beef flavored ones. And olive, of course. But then again, I do think it's weird that we have pickle flavored chips now.

You see this? Those two refrigerators, both sides, the whole length, are just plain and flavored yogurts and soft cheeses eaten out of cups. The other cheeses, milk, flan, mousse, butter, and other dairy products take up additional refrigerators like this. They do NOT mess around with their dairy, I tell you what. Also, they all taste really good.

August 6

2007-08-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

So we left for France on this day, but we were to arrive the next day. It was only about noon when the plane took off, and the flight was about 12 hours, but seeing as how the earth turns, it was the following day when we arrived.

The terminal. It was in this ridiculous, remote part of LAX with boarded-up walls and things like that. I felt like I was in Calcutta or something. Not like I'd know.

I wanted to make a phone call, but I had to go about 6 gates down from ours because there was this religious group, maybe Mormons, who had clearly been somewhere else (I think it was Japan) for about eight months so they were ALL making hour-long phone calls on almost all of the payphones in the terminal. I was lucky to find one.

We flew Air Tahiti Nui, which I highly recommend.

On every seat back was our own TV monitor, where we could watch movies, play games, watch Tahitian television, watch our flight trajectory and equivalent location on a map, or watch a live feed of one of two cameras, one pointed at the ground and the other straight ahead. That is what is currently depicted on the monitor, but this is a terrible photo.

Every seat also had a game console, which I thought we'd have to pay extra to use, but was just standard. I played some Solitaire, some Tetris, and monkeyed around with some games that I had never heard of that ended up being strange and made no sense.

It was also a very aesthetically pleasing airplane, with this lovely marine-like color scheme. It also had a lot more leg room than any Air France jet I've ever been on. (Not that it's a real problem for me, Ms. Stumpylegs.)

My mother with her airline pillow, which I don't believe she ever inflated.

My brother reading maybe?

Goodbye Los Angeles. (PS: I really hate sitting over the wing. I know most seats are over the wing, but one time, I picked a seat near the front, and it was like a universe of difference to not have that giant obstruction in my line of sight.)

Hours later....

The first creeping vestiges of the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean or Greenland (maybe).

A wee bit more sun comes out.

A little more sun...

And now it is blinding.

Ice crystals on the pane. It was probably something like -50 degrees Fahrenheit outside. No exaggeration.

I like seeing this from the window.

Frants! (A little smoggy.)

The airport Charles de Gaulle!

We exit, and greet the new country, new continent, new time zone.

August 5

2007-08-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

We visited my grandmother and saw my aunt and uncle before we left. Afterwards, we hung out a bit with my grandmother's neighbor's dog, Rusty.

We also went to buy some books to read in Europe. Outside, there was this car parked. It is quite interestingly decorated.

Plus some interesting Target products:

Mmmboring.

My kinda game.

Check out the spelling.

Good that it's subsidized.

August 4

2007-08-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

That's my pa.

August 3

2007-08-03T15:50:00.000-07:00

They are doing the mirror image thing, but they both kinda sucked at it, so oh well.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

This is the closest I have ever gotten to making this photo work for me.

I kinda like this one. My photography skills have plummeted.

I should do a study of what percentage of my photos are of birds. I'll bet it's significant.

Samantha is on the phone with her landlady. I was probably contemplating whether sunglasses on glasses makes me 6-eyes, or if it's exponential because there are reflections of reflections in the secondary pair.

Mine?

I was hoping we'd be on this one.

We were on this one. Could be worse.

Reminds me of Donkey Kong Country.

The Australian current thingy. The video screen nonsense was kinda lame.

Best part of the new Nemo ride: definitely the bubbles.

We totally defeated Zurg.

This is a really good idea.

Canoooooooooooes!!! Plus more birds. Canoes are totally, totally my favorite thing at Disneyland now.

So by some freak occurrence, even though it was a Friday, Disneyland was sooo empty. There was hardly any wait on anything (except the new submarine ride). It felt really weird. But good.

Wheeeee.

I am rather proud of this photo, actually.

The pretzel-peddler said it was the first time he'd seen anyone take a picture of his pretzels.

Samantha drinks her fancy acupuncture tea.

Not so tasty.

This is what we do.

Gryffindor! Ravenclaw! Dumbledore!

Tinkerbell wig. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

She was tempted. Very.

I, however, realize full well that I look absurd.

I had seen this hat hours previously, and only just realized that my head fit into the toddler-sized cap. Yes, that is size toddler. No, they don't make it for adults. Yes, I bought it.

I was, however, tempted by this one.

You just might be able to see me reflected in that mirror. Oh, no, that's Samantha.

I wish that were sharp. Sigh.

Job well done.

August 2

2007-08-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

Meticulously placed by yours truly.

August 1

2007-08-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

Bust water pipe on Crescent Heights. This is a deplorable photo, I apologize, but it was interesting at the time.

Also, I sort of wished this photo was better. We were seeing Hairspray. It's all right.

I really don't like wearing glasses.

How awesome would it be if my hair was actually this color?!

July 31

2007-07-31T02:38:00.000-07:00

I apparently contracted this crap, which I now know is a little touch of conjunctivitis and means that I have to wear my glasses for a while, until it heals. I hate glasses.

This is my other eye, which is fine, but a little veiny because I have a tendency for dry eyes and was probably tired, since I was born tired.

PS. Just for fun, I am putting these selfsame photos right next to each other because of the hilarious and weird effect it creates. Look!

YIKES.

July 30

2007-07-30T02:34:00.000-07:00

Visit to my pops! This is his latest ceramic creation:

It's about a foot by two feet, but I am crap at estimations. It does, however, have meticulous and exquisite detail.

At the Arclight gift shop, I saw this extremely useful item. It's actually pretty hard to squeeze, what with the net thing, but worth the effort. It looks like dangerously delicious grapes.

Trying again with my right hand, which is stronger. Better results.

July 29

2007-07-29T02:23:00.000-07:00

Went to the Kwik-E-Mart in Burbank, which was on Olive and Verdugo, in case anyone wants to look for it. It was okay. They were sold out of everything fun, except the ridiculous Simpsons movie merchandise, like stuffed Barts and giant Lisa Pez heads. But some of the decor was cool.

This was the best part. By far. So great.

I suppose it does kind of have to look like a drawing, but... it kind of looks like a drawing.

If you look very carefully, you can see Bart and Milhous on the roof. Why they are not lit by their own lamp, I do not know.

I couldn't really tell if these were drawn by the Simpsons animators themselves, or by people drawing in the style of the animators. Either way, pretty nifty.

The Squishee machines. What they were not sold out of, was broken.

If you can't have Buzz Cola, you might as well just have 7-Up.

In theory.

Someone tried to steal it. Tsk tsk.

July 28

2007-07-28T02:04:00.000-07:00

This is my grandmother.

That is what I call her. [Not "wine and cheese."]

And I have seen this image all over Hollywood. Anybody know what it is?

July 27

2007-07-27T02:40:00.000-07:00

This amuses me because it looks like it says "Peafood Buffet."

Fun in the waiting room.

And ceiling.

And me in the ceiling.

See this dress? I love it. I wish I could own it.

I tried it on, just for fun, and it totally looks cute on me.

Siiiiigh.

You know something is way too expensive if there is a manufacturer's suggested retail price, also known as MSRP. Maybe it'll be on sale one day... le sigh.

July 26

2007-07-26T02:30:00.000-07:00

Kitty photo explosion!

Maddy cat!

She's only pretending to sleep.

So cuuuute.

Kitty paw!

It's the Dark Mark!

She is so cute.

July 25

2007-07-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

Spending time with Samantha...

At this point, Samantha had read this much of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

And she's off!

Getting a bridesmaid's dress altered.

There was a cricket in there.

Then we went to Universal Citywalk for some Buca di Beppo and some sightseeing, and some Harry Potter in 3-D!!

In a shop that sells wind-up toys called "Wound & Wound," there was this old toy that was not for sale, but I wonder if anyone else has one of these and cherishes it like the valuable relic that it probably is.

This is a hilarious name for a shop.

These are socks that are shoes! They were pretty cool, but unfortunately, not within my means.

Something for everyone.

For those people who want to avoid the ocean and visit it at the same time...

We all know what this sign is.

I will admit that this is pretty funny.

These are ALL Pez dispensers. There were even more on another wall.

Hahaha.

3-D glasses are sooo stylish.

I love thems.

July 24

2007-07-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

On the way back down to LA, I took the 101 and witnessed the most beautiful rainbow!

It was so big that I couldn't get the whole thing in one frame! I have never seen a complete rainbow, so clear, so big, that lasted so long!

Across from the rainbow the sky was also quite beautiful.

King City. I thought the KFC sign would provide some nice irony.

The rainbow was still hanging around, only tinted pink this time.

Quite a sunset.

July 23

2007-07-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

I think the title of my Flickr album says it all: Oakland Zoo with Melissa and Kai (Melissa's toddler cousin).

These are the mingos.

Kai is tiny and likes to lead the way.

Zoo man is feeding the deer!

The siamangs hang out. We watch. They don't make their throaty calling noises.

They're looking at snakes.

Kai wasn't impressed with the tamarins, but I think they're totally adorable.

I really like this picture. I can't entirely explain the yellow glow, since I don't think we were looking at anything yellow. This might have been at the tamarin cage.

Kai did like the macaws, though.

This sign was on a bench outside of the gibbon cage. Gibbons are not monkeys.

Seriously, this kid is adorable.

Kai made friends with this tortoise.

I am a tortoise!

Kai is trying to be a tortoise.

This is as close as he got.

The sky was so pretty.

Lemurs!

Shrewd little things.

Wow this lemur had giant mammaries!

This little girl got to hang out with and feed the lemurs! How did she get to do this?!

This is the closest I have ever come to bats, and the best I have ever seen them.

Poor sweaty child.

This might also be the most amount of giraffes in one small place at one time, that I've ever seen.

These ducks are not from here. The giraffes seem to tolerate them fine though.

July 22

2007-07-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

This was a terrible day. But I don't want to talk about that part. These are the good parts. Melissa and I were going to spend time in San Francisco, but first I was spending some time driving around Berkeley.

It was an unbelievably clear day, and you could see San Francisco clearly from Grizzly Peak.

Also, Marin.

We went to 826 Valencia, which is Dave Eggers' pirate supply store and reading/writing workshop for underprivileged children.

Genius sign.

Full of oddities.

You can buy moustaches of varying shapes and sizes.

It's a veritable oddity emporium.

That is Karl the puffer fish. Shouldn't judge him.

It closed.

This almost tasted really good.

The iced tea was certainly pretty.

The sky was gorgeous.

Kinda sweet, right?

July 21

2007-07-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

We drove up from Hearst Castle taking the coastal highway, passing through San Simeon and Big Sur and other wonders of nature.

First, we stopped to see the elephant seals that hang out at this time of year, apparently.

It was so windy that the seagulls didn't fly out of the way of the cars, they just kind of glared at us and hopped over.

This coast is so beautiful. That little tiny nub way off in the distance is actually a giant lighthouse.

The crows were having a tough time with the wind also.

These critters were all over the place, following us around.

They have spotted fur and skinny tails, unlike the squirrels that I am accustomed to.

It was way windy.

There they are!

This guy sleeps with his fin in the air.

These guys are fighting, but lazily. After a throwdown, they just get tired and flop back over and rest.

These guys sleep end-to-end like train cars.

And they would all throw sand over themselves.

It is so beautiful here!

The water was fairly teeming with kelp.

Onward!

It was hot and I am wall-eyed.

We stopped for dinner and sightseeing at Nepenthe, a little oasis in the middle of Big Sur where lots of artists and bikers and other transients visit.

Hi, Jesus.

Really cool fence. We couldn't tell if the wood was naturally warped, or if something had been done to it.

I like Stephanie's jacket.

There exists somewhere a photo of me standing in front of this same eagle carving statue when I was about 7 years old.

THIS was delicious. They are savory sweet potato and pecan ~~croquettes~~ fritters with some kind of curry/lime mayonnaise. So so good.

They light the fire at sundown.

We just slightly missed the sunset, but the glow was still there.

Would have been pretty.

Oh, and I like contrast.

July 20

2007-07-20T01:31:00.000-07:00

HEARST CASTLE.

Viewing this page not recommended for people still using dial-up. And if you are, do yourself a favor and get broadband.

William Randolph Hearst had a private zoo, and allowed his animals to run free, including the zebra.

And mountain goat type things.

And cows that are totally unimpressed.

Truly a castle on the hill.

The Neptune pool is epic.

The facade:

Even the drain pipes are fancy!

The grounds are beautiful:

There were multicolored hydrangeas blooming everywhere. They look like clusters of butterflies.

Bougainvillea and cherubs.

Every garden needs a headless statue.

Apple trees!

Also, every garden needs a big rusty cannon.

Great Ceilings:

Great Lamps:

This is my favorite kind of lamp, the kind where the shades are made of parchment.

Great Beds:

Interesting Artwork:

I also loved the mock closets, made to look like they would if there were people living/staying there.

A lady guest's closet.

"W.R. Hearst's" closet

"Marion Davies's" closet.

Some whole rooms were just breathtaking in their detail and construction:

This particular room was so full of stuff, including an ancient Egyptian statue, these crazy blue wall hangings, the Renaissance-looking ceiling from above, and, of course, lamps:

The guest library:

Hearst's study:

The Call of the Wild and A Christmas Carol.

And my FAVORITE room, the Celestial Suite:

So beautiful, I cannot believe it.

The architect, Julia Morgan, had her workshop on the grounds, and this is a model of it.

The tennis courts, which would be lit with movie studio lights:

Below which is...

THE ROMAN POOL.

Yes, those are cobalt and gold tiles, lit with alabaster lamps, and the surface of the water is so perfectly unbroken that it's unreal.

This little inner cove bit is so interesting, because the light that comes through is from glass blocks on the floor of the tennis court on the roof, and as the sun moves, the light comes in at different angles, illuminating the gold tiles on the bottom of the pool:

We are really happy to be here, regardless of how nonplussed we look.

July 19

2007-07-19T01:20:00.000-07:00

I drove up to San Simeon to meet Stephanie, with whom I was going to go to Hearst Castle the following day.

The 101 has nice little coves all along the way. These are up around Ventura.

And tons of palm trees, which are not native to California, but might as well be now.

I am always driving into the sun. It doesn't matter which direction I'm going, it seems.

This annoys me.

Ah, fields and fields of vegetation.

I LOVE this kind of tree.

Driving past the rows and rows of crops can be so mesmerizing. That's why I don't look at them while I drive.

Nice cliffs.

This is the worst time to drive because the sun dips lower than the sun shade, so you might as well not even bother trying to see.

Dumb name for a street.

Tiny scrap of a nice sunset.

July 18

2007-07-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

Hodgepodge of photos:

It really exists. It's very small.

I thought this was cool.

And now for a produce interlude.

Wrinklemelon.

This is still in my fridge.

July 17

2007-07-17T00:39:00.000-07:00

Samantha and I had lunch (Canter's) and a movie (Sicko).

Canter's is featured fairly often in this blog because I just really love it. Deli food is (among) my comfort food, and I like the atmosphere. There are often really weird people there, and occasionally I get my absolute favorite waiter, Douglas, who will appear in a moment.

It's really quite picturesque and fun and tacky all at once.

Douglas is my favorite waiter because he is so strange. For one, his hair is quite literally 8 inches high, he acts kind of weird and spazzy, and one time that he served me, he would keep reappearing with his clothing slightly different. Either he's be wearing something different, or he'd have removed something, or it was just differently accessorized. Also, he has crazy mutton chops. He's probably an actor.

She is explaining something to me.

Their bakery is legendary (to me).

Fun with feet.

My big toes are like thumbs. Also, jeez I am pale.

There's a part in Lost in Translation where Scarlett Johansson's character talks about doing photography for a while, but she just took dumb pictures of her feet. When I first saw it, I was the only one in the theater who laughed out loud. I guess it's a photography thing.

July 16

2007-07-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

Eddie Izzard live at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles!!

My photos weren't very good, but I felt sort of bootleggy taking them at all, though I'm not selling them or distributing them for any profit, so I guess there's no illegality about it. Right? I have no idea. But anyway. The ones that Bryan took were better, so if you can see Eddie Izzard's face, Bryan took it.

He probably took this one.

Pantomime?

Outside the venue...

I've not checked out the website. I am afraid of an assault of dirty moving gifs.

The lingerie isn't actually all that trashy. There were some leopard print ones that were kinda crazy, but some of these aren't too awful.

July 15

2007-07-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

I spent this evening with old friends whom I have known upwards of 8 years. They are not old, however. They are 16.

Rachel is pretending she doesn't see me take her photo.

I wouldn't be surprised if all of her photos look like this.

Kaitlin has discovered that she likes tofu.

I enjoy watching the condensed milk infiltrate the coffee in Thai iced coffee.

July 14

2007-07-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

Bastille Day! I don't celebrate this in the traditional way (ugly hats and fireworks and running around in the streets), nor do I celebrate it in any traditional way at all. It changes every year. Some years, I remember it a few days after the fact. This year, however, I honored it with a barbecue wherein none of my invitees were French.

My barbecue is notoriously difficult to light. At its height, there were no less than six people attempting to ignite it, myself included.

Look at those dour faces. We were dreaming of lovely grilled food, and the charcoal was not catching.

See? The disappointment is crushing.

Well, some people are more optimistic than others.

It's picking up. (Also, here night falls like a ton of bricks.)

Samantha chops wood. With my dad's hatchet. This makes her happy.

Rosana takes matters into her own hands, and this is the result of a giant squirt of lighter fluid. This, plus the firewood and newspaper, worked.

The stuff in foil is potatoes. There were tasty!

The spread. THIS is what summer is to me. I suppose I can do this any time of year, but it tastes better in the summer.

Tim and Marie arrive, bringing with them ~~French~~ German beer, which they likely also drink in France.

We are happier with food on the grill.

Marie has a new haircut.

Sean the Rocket Man. Brain the size of a planet, contemplating the flames.

Alec arrives to partake in the festivities.

I always think this is a photo of Tal playing the banjo.

Marie took this photo. Your faithful narrator deserves a spot of embarrassment every now and again. They can't ALL be flattering photos. But I like this one because I LOVE CORN!!

Crappy photo, but HAHAHA.

Oh yeah, we forgot about the chicken.

Bryan paints the chicken with barbecue sauce. What a great invention, barbecue sauce.

More wood chopping for some MARSHMALLOWS!

July 13

2007-07-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

These events actually happened on the 14th, but I somehow didn't take any pictures on this day, so let's say it was an unlucky Friday the 13th, because it might as friggin' well have been.

My poor car. I ran out of gas on the freeway. I AM A MORON.

However, it did offer me a unique view of the 405.

This was kinda scary actually.

On the ground.

July 12

2007-07-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

Samantha, Tal, and I went to a little Japanese area of Santa Monica, on Sawtelle near the state-named streets if anyone wants to find it. There's this awesome little shop that sells the cutest, most bizarre little things there. I don't usually end up buying much, and hardly ever anything useful, but it's fun to look around.

Tiny tupperware. Tiny. TINY.

There was not a word of English on this package, so I can only guess at its use. I think it's a patch you put on the bottom of your foot that makes your feet smell like pine trees. Maybe?

This was one of many kitchen timers that was shaped like a kitchen implement, and this one is my favorite. And it's useful! I would like one such timer, only I have no place of my own. When I move, I will have this in my kitchen. I think I will have a funny apartment.

I have no idea. It's a kitchen tool. Of some sort.

Maybe when you make your own fabulous shade when mixing food coloring, you want to keep it somewhere that will be uncontaminated by any other substance, yet you want to conserve space.

Genius! (Though it's not really self-shining, unless you're accustomed to spit shining your shoes. Rubbing shoe polish on your shoe is shining it yourself... with shoe polish.)

Among the authentic crockery (muggery?), there is a selection of fine Disney mugs to choose from. Hmm.

These were hanging all over the ceiling. They are so cute!

Seriously, they have everything.

Comfort chopsticks. You hook your pinky in that loop.

Ah, Engrish.

This little crepe stand (i.e. closet with burners) scares me. This is why:

That sign is intimidating as hell. Who'd want to work there?!?!

The crepes are really good though.

July 11

2007-07-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

MIDNIGHT!

Warner Brothers presents...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

(Actually, I didn't like it that much.)

PS. I AM NEVER SHOOTING IN ISO 800 EVER AGAIN!

July 10

2007-07-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was one of those people who waited in line to see the midnight screening premiere of the new Harry Potter movie.

The theater was gigantic.

Fellow fans. I know these people.

I know these people too. Tom looks crazy. He probably didn't know I was taking the picture. Neither did Bryan, by the look of it.

Tom took this one. I knew it would be a slightly lengthy exposure, so I decided to make myself look like I have a floppy head. This photo makes me chuckle.

The people in front of us were very symmetrical. Quite charming.

July 9

2007-07-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Bees on the wall!

Actually, it's the same bee twice.

The numbers on my house are peeling.

July 8

2007-07-08T01:39:00.000-07:00

Today, I saw my dear good friend Melissa for an impromptu snack/late dinner and eventual driving tour of Los Angeles.

First, Fred 62, the hipsteriest diner ever, probably. You can't tell from these photos, but everyone here is ridiculously cool, except, perhaps, me. All of the waiters and waitresses dress super cute and funky with snarky statements on their shirts and fishnets and demi-leggings and crap like that. Food is good, though.

The blurry guy was our waiter. He had nothing but the utmost disdain for us. Behind him is the wall of presumably fake celebrity portrait endorsements for the restaurant.

Melissa thought that the greasy, bespectacled guy at the next table was Pauly Shore. It wasn't, but it really could have been. Only I think he's tied up in lawsuits because a raucous party of his flooded his neighbor Wes Craven's property, and he's being sued. Ah, Los Angeles.

Then, DOWNTOWN! Downtown LA is what LA should have been. It's got smaller streets, some of which are one way; tall, old buildings with old filigree detailed carvings and actual interesting architecture; multicultural and artistic residents, many of whom are frighteningly rich, some of whom are shockingly poor; old movie theaters that may or may not still be in use; beautiful and well-endowed libraries and classical concert venues and museums on streets lined with twinkling lights; right next to the jewelry, garment, factory, Chinese, Thai, and anything else district. It's like New York, only tiny.

See? How cool is this?

I wish I knew what that building is now, or what it used to be.

One such old theater, which doesn't seem to be doing anything except providing shelter to homeless people.

Another one, with a gorgeous carved archway that I wish I could buy just to keep it exactly as it is. I think I have a hidden dream to own an abandoned movie theater and just sneak around it and creep myself out.

The Disney Music Hall, which you cannot take an ugly picture of, it's just so beautiful. Especially at night with all the various colored street lights reflecting off of its many shiny surfaces.

This street is around the corner from the Disney Music Hall, and those two buildings are the Mark Taper Forum and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I think that the Disney Hall relieves some of the concert booking for those, so between the three of those places, you can probably see any kind of classical show or play ever.

I think I was trying to take a long-exposure photo of the lights while I was driving so they'd get that cool streaky thing going, but I messed up somehow. I like this photo though, and of course, the steering wheel is super exciting.

And then Dodger Stadium:

Yaaaaaaay baseball.... I guess.

Then, like a tourist, I went around trying to get the perfect shot of the downtown skyline. This was the best that I could get without actually taking the freeway and putting mine and Melissa's lives in danger:

It's a pretty nice skyline. Of course, all those pretty buildings are owned by lending institutions. And I think one hotel.

Quite a sign. It amuses me.

Then we ended up in Santa Monica, just for kicks, and on the way, we saw giant searchlights illuminating the sky. We were wondering what it was, and while were we passing SMC, our old stomping grounds, we saw that the searchlights were coming from somewhere nearby, so we abandoned nostalgia for curiosity. It led us to Santa Monica High School which was blocked off and patrolled by security guards who told us that there was a special event going on in the Greek theater on the high school premises, and that he couldn't tell us what it was. For trying to keep a secret, they were sure not making it subtle. There were a bunch of other people milling around, asking what was going on. It was weird.

The lights were really freakin bright.

Melissa hopped a fence and I climbed halfway into the campus. She was caught (of course) by the same security guard who had told us that we couldn't know what was going on. We felt foolish. But jeez, I felt like we were trying to spy on Area 51. The lights were SO BRIGHT.

They also changed colors. (I think you can see a slight silhouette of Melissa climbing back down.)

I mean, how can you not be curious about this? I have not altered this in any way, that's really how it looked.

The security guard told us we'd find out Monday afternoon at the civic center next door, but being as how we don't live in Santa Monica, we weren't there to find out, and I looked online for it and there was no mention of what went on. There's a terrible YouTube video that I won't even link of the lights, but my photos are better.

EDIT: I just looked harder. Apparently Microsoft was starting E3 early and having their press event early with a light show. If you care about E3 type stuff, the article is here. I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping that Pink Floyd was re-forming and trying out their new laser light show. Nope, it's just Microsoft.

July 7

2007-07-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

The Decemberists and Andrew Bird at the Hollywood Bowl!

I noticed for the first time (maybe I wasn't looking before) that you can see part of the Hollywood sign from the seating area. I wasn't even as high up as you could get; I'm sure that from the last row, you could see the whole thing. Pretty cool.

Band of Horses played first. They're okay, if not a bit whiny and... nondescript.

THIS GUY. And his stupid friends. They were really rude and unpleasant. If you ever see him anywhere, give him a dirty look. He said lascivious and inappropriate things to us. Booooo.

And then he took his nasty shoes off and aired out his nasty feet. Give him a REALLY dirty look if ever you should see him.

Then Andrew Bird came on. Seriously, this is the best photo I could take given the distance and the natural semi-unsteadiness of my hands. I only just realized that I didn't have the image stabilizing function on my new camera turned on, so this would have probably been a million times clearer had I known this. Oh well.

Luckily, there are the giant screens, so I could pretend that I was close enough to get a decent shot. You can see blurries where he's playing his violin like a guitar.

The Decemberists! Different angle. We moved seats to the employee section. You can see that from the first two shots of the stage to this one, that paneled wall is gone to make way for the LA Philharmonic, who played with said band. It was really good. Also, apparently, the lead singer's sister was married recently, and the concert was her celebration party thing. Why can't I remember what that word is. Ah, RECEPTION.

At one point, the lead singer asked the audience to humor him one thing and open and hold up all of our cell phones. So even though this photo is a bit of the suck, it was really cool seeing a field of blue screens waving around. Most of the people (including me) closed their phones when they started playing songs again, but a lot actually kept them open for a while longer. This was not quite the peak of it, but almost. It was a fun show.

July 6

2007-07-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

Paid a visit to my beloved cockatiel, Tonks.

[By the way, the spell check thing on Blogger says that I have misspelled "cockatiel," and offers the words, "cocktail," "cockatoo," "cockerel" and "cockade." I had to look the last two words up, and they mean, respectively, a young rooster and a knotted ribbon or ornament. No, really mean cockatiel.]

She's so cute when she looks at me quizzically.

And when she moves her cute little head feathers around.

I pity the fool what doesn't like Porto's.

July 5

2007-07-05T00:45:00.000-07:00

Ah, Norms. They never do close.

July 4

2007-07-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

Low key kind of day. I went to the beach with Tal and Samantha, and we pretty much just ran around, tossed the old Nerfskin around, and looked at stuff.

On the way to Point Dume.

This was one of those, "Wow, I took this?" kind of moments.

Southern California can be kind of idyllic sometimes.

The lone boogie boarder scoping out the next wave.

I have a sort of embarrassingly large number of photos of my feet and legs being battered around by the waves. This is the most exciting one.

Samantha likes this photo. It is amazingly hilarious.

We play catch.

Tal throws exhuberantly.

And then I joined in.

July 3

2007-07-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Getty Center!

I am going to just marvel at the miracle of architectural genius that this place is.

The architect, Richard Meier, designed this to be used by people, and he made the stones on the ground 30"x30", which is about as far as people stand apart from each other in conversation. He also modeled it after the city of LA, and made the gridlines of the stones in the walls, floors, and ceilings align, just like the grid on which the streets are drawn in the city. There are many frames created by the pillars and supports that draw the eye to look at the landscapes beyond. He also has all of the buildings either facing due South, following one mountain range, or 22 degrees SW, following the other mountain range that meets at that point. It's so brilliant.

Those light green things are ugly. I meant to Photoshop them out, but I don't have it installed right now.

This little girl was looking at the fossils of leaves that are embedded in the travertine tiles of which a large portion of the Getty is made up.

Leaf fossil.

I like this because it looks like the center of the fountain is climbing out.

And the gardens...

It looks like there's a lot of spider web in the middle, but it's just part of the cactus.

They look like grapes.

These ones are SO green in the center and so purple around the edges.

Robert Irwin, who designed the gardens, was a painter. As the tour guide said, he made the Getty his canvas and used plants as his paint. From above, it looks like an abstract painting, and there are colors galore, highlighting and accenting each other and the greenery surrounding.

Bougainvillea trellis trees.

The edges are so delicate.

It took a really long time for me to get these flowers to look as purple as they were. My camera has a hard time rendering purple, so I had to adjust a lot of stuff, and even then, they only really look purple in the sunlit photos rather than the ones in the shade.

These are interesting and fuzzy.

Tiny, tiny pansy. Size of the upper section of my thumb.

These are kind of mesmerizing.

So lovely and gilded.

July 2

2007-07-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

The La Brea Tar Pits:

I saw this on the way. I like it.

Also this. The pigeons of Park La Brea.

This used to upset me a lot when I was a little kid. I imagined that the elephants on the bank were the dad and the baby elephant, and the mom elephant was getting pulled into the tar, much to her family's distress. I was a morbid kid.

Okay. The woolly mammoth was always my favorite thing here as a kid. I would stand and watch it as it tilted and swung its head side to side and then with a pensive pause, reared its head up and made the trumpeting sound of an agitated pachyderm. I would stand and watch that thing in all its animatronic glory, and I loved the hydraulic clicks and gear grindings that would come with the show, and when I would first walk into the museum, I would pretend that I didn't want to just run right over to it and stare at it, and I politely looked at the exhibits that came before it, but I really just wanted to watch the woolly mammoth and get a little scared every time the trumpeting cry went off.

Wouldn't you know. IT DOESN'T MOVE ANYMORE. It still makes the trumpet noise, but the actual animal itself is perfectly stationary. That was a sad moment.

I also like the Imperial Mammoth skeleton because it looks like a giant grinning thing.

This is probably one of the coolest things in the museum too: a wall of dire wolf skulls. They found something like 1200 full skeletons, and this is a wall of 404 of them. This is only half of one of three or four cases of skulls.

Pretty funny pair of "scissors." I like that saber-tooth tigers are called "smilodons."

The afternoon light making all sorts of shadows on the ground.

The permanent farmer's market on Fairfax and Third st. is always a nifty place to find nifty things.

Crystallized violets, whose use I cannot fathom, but they look very pretty.

I would buy this for my dad.

Then the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, where we hung out and saw some sea life.

Biggest lobster I've ever seen.

My favorite animal.

Urchin.

Sea slug!

Moon jellies in all their cnidarian glory. Watching a moon jelly tank is so soothing. I recommend it.

Sea pen!

We actually went to the aquarium to see the grunions do the mating dance, but because it was not peak season, and therefore it was open season, there weren't that many fish, and there were about a million kids who just grabbed the fish and threw them around and took them to the scientists' booth where they removed the eggs and milt to breed them themselves. Consequently, this is as close to a grunion as I got:

THIS KID. He was running around in nothing but those swimming trunks and an iPod, plugged into his ears and playing music. He had picked up one of the fish and was yelling "ew! gross!" kind of things to his friends, and just at the moment that I snapped his photo, incognito, he was pretending to eat it. So now I can look back at this kid with nothing but contempt AND disgust.

July 1

2007-07-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Museum of Jurassic Technology:

They had a tea and cookie room upstairs. That interesting contraption on the far left is a samovar, which is a tea maker/decanter thing. Old fashionedy.

I photograph tea grounds. Maybe they will tell me my fortune. (The grounds sorta look like Australia... I hope that means that I will go there soon. That would be a good fortune.)

Nice decor.

This is a poorly composed photo of a charming portrait of Laika, the first dog in space. There was a whole shrine to the Soviet dogs of outer space.

It is too complicated to explain what this is. Swinging weights on chains.

Ricky Jay narrated an exhibit about the degeneration of dice in the Los Angeles area. These are the melty dice which I found interesting.

Miniature model of a trailer home.

I haven't even scratched the surface of all the weird and crazy stuff they have at this place. Y'all should check it out.

Then we went to Venice Beach:

As always, they have some amusing signs, sometimes not intentionally so.

Some muscle men showing off to the public. I would too if I had lats like that.

One of those guys who paints himself in metallic colors and makes mechanical whirring noises when you give him money. Only this one has a DOG.

People like dogs in Venice Beach. They also sell dog clothing, dog hats and dog sunglasses somewhere around there. The booth moves periodically.

This is the free dog water man, who also probably moves this piano every day to the beach and back to wherever he lives. Only in LA? Indubitably.

I bought a poster and took a picture of the palm trees through it. I got the idea from Bryan though, don't credit me.

The Duke of Plaza Toro: Ah, Venice.

Santa Monica Pier:

I like to photograph the waning sunlight and the frolicking natives in the repulsively polluted Santa Monica beach water. (It sure is pretty though.)

My mom thinks this shot is amazing. Um. Okay.

I like this one better.

Someone (a stranger!) recently favorited this photo on Flickr. Yay! I'm famous!

Though, again, as far as ferris wheel photos go, I like this one better. No accounting for the tastes of others.

I also like this one.

I have a million other ferris wheel photos, which I won't bore you with, but they're on that Flickr page that I JUST linked. So check it out.

Why has nobody favorited this photo? This is poetry. (Haha.)

I also have a million photos of reflections of various luminous bodies, natural or not, reflected in the ocean, which I won't post here either for the sake of brevity, in which this post is already severely lacking.

June 30

2007-06-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

Tal's birthday party was today. Only his actual birthday was almost three weeks earlier. Gotta celebrate sometime.

First, I gave Samantha her gift for graduation, since I wasn't able to make THAT party. I think she likes it.

The purple potato chips were quite pretty, but it's the sweet potato chip that was really delicious. Sweet potatoes are magical.

Samantha and Sara play Tangoes which is really freakin hard. Apparently they used to test the intelligence of immigrants coming to the United States by timing them when they do this kind of game. It's a good thing I wasn't trying to immigrate at that time because they wouldn't have let me in.

The birthday ~~cake~~ mango and sticky rice. So delicious.

Tal, pre- and post-candle blowing out. He looks almost exactly the same.

June 29

2007-06-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Kenneth flew in from Northern California. On his first night, we saw a little taste of Los Angeles:

"God Bless The Dead." Seems a little... I don't know what it is.

June bug!

June 28

2007-06-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

What was this, a Thursday? Did I do anything? Let's see...

This is what garbanzo beans look like right off the plant. I had no idea that they came in little pods. Apparently (according to Wikipedia), in India, people eat them right out of the pod as snacks. I didn't buy any.

I found my cats sleeping in tandem on the bench in my kitchen. They're so cute when they're sleepy. And Houdini is so silly with his leg and tail hanging off the edge. One thing I can say for Madeleine is that she consolidates her space.

June 27

2007-06-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

On this day, my grandmother threw a giant(ish) party for her cousin, Shabtai, who lives in Israel, but who was visiting the US for the first time in 20 years. I don't think I'd met him before, but he swears he remembers my brother and my cousin Allison who are the same age.

He was taking pictures. I was taking pictures. It was a trip.

I drove Aunt Ruth and Uncle Milton to the party and back, which meant that I arrived and left nearly an hour before the rest of my family did. Milton asked me the same questions he always does, because he can't remember, and Ruth was so impressed by the way I drove. I think it's because we didn't hit traffic and I don't speed.

My uncle Eric is telling Ruth that with diabetes she CAN eat things besides lettuce, and that all she has to do is count grams of carbohydrates. Ruth was pleased to hear this, but she'll probably turn around and say that because of her "sugar diabetes" she can't eat anything, so she won't cook and eat anymore.

My dad and my brother just hang out.

My mother, my dad's cousin Rob and my great-aunt Bertha are listening to Shabtai talk about Israel and the rest of the Middle East. I didn't really want to get into that conversation, and I didn't want anyone to ask me what I thought about it because I don't like talking about it.

Allison and Brooke are my second cousins. They live in Redondo Beach and are altogether "cooler" than my brother and I are, probably. Allison wants to be a casting agent and Brooke is interested in fashion. They are also very pretty and popular and are really funny with their grandparents:

I call this: Family Portrait with Condiments.

Brooke, her mother Sheila (Rob's wife), and my purse on the green couch that I always fall asleep on at my grandmother's house.

It's not even the most comfortable couch either, there's just something about it that is so relaxing.

The Siblings: my grandmother Florence, Bertha, and Milton, in order of age. They're so cute.

June 26

2007-06-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

A Supermarket in California
-Allen Ginsberg

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the
streets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit
supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles
full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! --- and you,
Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

Also, because Hollywood is weird:

June 25

2007-06-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Vidal and I had nothing to do. So we went to Hollywood.

We went to Mashti Malone's for some rosewater ice cream. Well, I had the rosewater, I think it blew Vidal's mind too much, so he had pomegranate sorbet.

This is the look of satisfaction.

They have generic flavors, but this end of the counter is the one that interests me: the unusual ones. Ginger rosewater, herbal ice, saffron orange... delicious.

After a quick hello to my grandmother, we saw Paprika

which was good, but weird as hell. Successful film, all in all.

It was playing in a beautiful old theater on La Brea. I can't believe I'd never been there before.

Beautiful, but the seats were really uncomfortable.

Apparently Steve Buscemi has a new film coming out. Stay tuned; it's called The Interview.

Credits look interesting on time-lapse. Looks like an old video game.

June 24

2007-06-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

Fruit and Ikea.

Since I am not stranded on a tropical desert island, coconut is not that rewarding.

Inside of a cabinet:

June 23

2007-06-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Ariana had a show at the The Cocaine in Little Tokyo, which I attended. I sat kind of in the back, so I didn't see much, but I think that my photos weren't bad, all things considered.

All of these people had a better view than me:

They had to take their food outside, because for some reason, it's not allowed, even packaged up. I think that's a little weird.

The girl with the curly hair with her back to me was also in the previous photo. She moved within the time that I took these photos.

I don't know them.

Then Ariana came on!

With Amanda Lynn, her mandolin.

Saying hi and switching instruments.

I don't think that this is her usual guitar. Hmm.

More photos of her playing:

Then other musicians, Stephanie and Sebastian (whose birthday it was) joined the fray.

June 22

2007-06-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

Didn't do much. I did play with my camera a bit though.

This photo makes me laugh.

I also played with my mother's concave mirror for magnifying blemishes on the face so you feel insecure about yourself. It was dirty, so the first photos I took were kinda gross, but then I cleaned it.

I am a Harlequin.

I think I can clean this one up on Photoshop.

I tried the dollface one again with a clean mirror, but it wasn't as good. Oh well.

Then I went to Santa Monica, and saw this lovely view:

For those of you who have never been to Santa Monica, yes, it always looks like that.

Also, weird name for a shop. They sell ice cream. Isn't that oddly redundant?

June 21

2007-06-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

Nothing of note on this day. So here are some old photos of flowers:

June 20

2007-06-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

I spent this day with my grandmother, visiting various family members around the Valley.

First, my aunt's house in the West Hills:

The brunch spread. Pretty darn tasty, and bagels in the back.

Cucumberfish!

I am being shown the small garden where they have been planting things like lettuce and eggplant. Some are doing well, others have been suffering from the heat.

My aunt doesn't know I took this picture. She actually does have eyes, although you can't see them here.

My cousin is quite lovely. She's almost my height and wears a larger shoe size than I do, and she's only 12. She's going to be an Amazon.

The dawgs, Mona and Harley. Mona is a good dog. Harley is not.

Then a visit with my great-aunt Ruth and great-uncle Milton. They keep their house very dark, so the photo quality here is not as good.

Ruth is loud and fiesty, or at least she used to be until she was diagnosed with "sugar diabetes" and thinks that she can't eat anything so she might as well just die. This is not pleasant to hear.

Milton is really nice, and has always been a sweet guy. He lets Ruth push him around, but he has a sense of humor about it. He has Alzheimer's, which wasn't too bad on this day, but on other days, he forgets who people are. This is also very sad.

But, things will be okay. Ruth is actually pretty healthy, and Milton is positive about things.

June 19

2007-06-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

I am a goofball.

Had dinner at The Rack, which is what the Wolfgang Puck and CPK at the Topanga Promenade have become. It's not that good.

Highlights of my meal:

The best part of a really mediocre caprese salad.

Sweet potato fries and a too-rare hamburger, which I didn't like that much, I only thought the photo was pretty.

More notable, however, was the fact that they were filming part of a dating show in the restaurant, a sort of Blind Date meets Punk'd.

The cameraman. The two heads there are the guys that a bored-looking girl was dating, one of whom was normal, and the other had a huge afro and wore a green bathrobe, and during the meal, came up and started touching her hair. She got mad and left the table, presumably for the bathroom. I am told that there was a dwarf dressed as a devil who played some part in the shenanigans.

There's the girl, giving an interview outside, probably to show that there are no hard feelings. But she seemed pretty annoyed otherwise. I guess they have to be good sports if they want to be on TV. I have no idea.

Outside:

Sometimes buildings look better...

THROUGH A VORTEX!!

Clever advertising for Balls of Fury. Note the fourth person from the left.

June 18

2007-06-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

Back in LA, thought I'd do a few errands. Some pretty funny stuff, let me tell you.

This button butterfly is in the public library on Vanowen and Laurel Grove. They also have a really good DVD selection.

This is funny if you see it as an imperative command rather than a noun.

At 99 Ranch, I totally wanted to buy these because the name is so frank and straightforward. But then again, taking a picture is just as good.

Plus the ingredients are weird. But apparently there is no other way to put it: the product is Pudding (Delicious Snack).

Meltyblend is such a cute name.

June 17

2007-06-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

Bidding farewell to Bryan's really cute studio. We will probably never see it again.

It was a converted garage.

June 16

2007-06-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

Gotta love early morning graduations. I can't remember the last time I woke up this early for something that wasn't school or work related. Oh wait, I never have.

This was my view. That sliver of podium you see there is where all the speakers stood, none of whom I could really ever see. But that's okay. I like to pretend sometimes that I'm in old-timey America and all there is is the radio with late-night broadcasts of the news, Fireside Chats with FDR, and caped avenger capers. Or maybe I'm just romanticizing the fact that the seats weren't very good. But it really is okay.

The graduates file in. Because it's effin SANTA CRUZ, there are a bunch of people who opted not to wear caps and gowns, or who only wore some of the cap-gown-tassel ensemble, and instead wore normal clothes, weird clothes, or caps-gowns-tassels of different colors, cuts, and styles from the ones probably offered at the student store. Effin Santa Cruz.

Perfect example of that: red gown, blue aviator's hat or whatever that is. I wonder where he got that.

One girl among them tacked a banana slug to her mortarboard. I thought that was cute. If my mascot was as interesting as a banana slug, I might be as obsessed with it as so many Santa Cruzians are. Bears are kinda boring. (I mean- go bears! Whatever.)

Bryan walks up to receive the "diploma." He was easy to spot because of his proximity to the pink-mohawk girl.

Crappy photo, but the only one that exists of Bryan actually accepting the "diploma." His family all wants me to send them this photo. Must get on that.

YAYGRADUATION!

These people are brothers. I think they're all going for something different here. And possibly all looking at different cameras.

For no reason, I thought I'd toss in a photo of the Santa Cruz Crazy Pink Guy. He's always downtown, walking super slow and ignoring everyone.

June 15

2007-06-15T15:14:00.000-07:00

Script readings. I don't remember which one this was.

Congratulating the playwrights. Yay!

June 14

2007-06-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

(Back posting!)

Driving on this day, the sky was so interesting and beautiful. It was a little difficult to see at times, and at other times, it was hard to focus on the road because everything else was so pretty.

A giant cloud bank came out of nowhere and just ate the sun.

Stuff disappeared into the clouds, but it seemed like a pretty contained mass, so the sun was always just about peeking through the space between the mountains and the hills.

And how can I not love a purple sunset?

June 13

2007-06-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

I swear that one day, my life will be interesting again, and I will have things to write about and photos to post. Today was actually not bad, what with hangin with Tal and Samantha, having sushi, and watching a movie. I just didn't take pictures of it. So here's an old one that I also took at Fred 62:

Can you guess what it is? I'll just tell you since I won't hear your answer anyway. It's a cup of water with those ice flakes instead of cubes, in front of a candle.

Maybe I should just do macros of weird things and see who can guess what they are. That would be fun, right? Say yes. I can't hear you anyway.

June 12

2007-06-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

I spent the day with my grandmother on this day. This was also technically yesterday, but because I haven't slept yet, it is just this past day.

My grandmother is the only person I know who sits closer to the steering wheel than I do. She is almost 89, and she is really tiny. She also sits on a pillow and is very sweet.

She took me to lunch at a place that her friend likes, but her friend is also very old and unfortunately, doesn't have fabulous taste. It was... okay. I had a Reuben that I left in her car, it was that amazing.

However, there were these pretty and interesting flowers:

I then napped on her couch for a few hours, which I do pretty often. Her couch used to belong to her mother, or to my grandfather's mother, and it has greenish upholstery with Chinese knots embroidered into it, with a scalloped back and thin, hard arm rests. And it is so goshdarn comfortable. Puts me straight to sleep.

She then imparted on me my favorite of all of her many paperweights. I like it because it looks like a sea urchin.

Yes, I call her Noni.

June 11

2007-06-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on this day. So here are some photos taken from my cell phone on past days that were probably also featured on this blog:

This was sprayed on the cement of the stairs to the Campanile Esplanade in Berkeley. If you know me, you know why I like this.

A charming snack that I found at the 24-hour Walgreen's in Oakland, on the night that Stephanie and I bought gloves, masks, solvents, and snacks for cleaning the next day. Yippee.

Them things make your face sweat.

This was at the Hawaiian Festival. So ridiculous. So wonderful.

Written on a post outside of Fred 62, the most hipster-riddled place in all of Los Angeles. They have great food, but I am not chic enough to sit indoors. That's fine with me.

June 10

2007-06-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

All I did on this day of note: had Thai food with my brother at my favorite Thai place in the Valley, Krua Thai.

It is snazzy and colorful, and was totally empty for a while.

Vidal's soft drink of choice? (When there's no orange soda?) SPRITE.

This is the remainder of Vidal's meal that he WOULD NOT bring home, nor would he finish, so I ate it. I am becoming more and more like my dad.

Vidal is self-consciously not posing for this photo. There is a lot of neon in this place.

I had something new, which was utterly uninspiring. I should stick to what I know that is good. But then again, I love trying new stuff. Eh, I should just be prepared to be disappointed occasionally.

June 9

2007-06-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

This day of baking, we weren't exhausted and giggling about the ridiculous faces we made out of petit fours and frosting. But, because they WERE really funny, here they are:

They have names. In sequence, they are: tyrannosaurus rex, angry guy, a tribute to James Bond's Dr. No, flower with bumblebee, big-eyed unhappy Mr. Bill-looking guy, super crazy happy guy, giant eye guy (whose eye is the Target target), happy pink one, and the one all covered with little spikes plus some poop.

And, because one of the recipes for petit fours was raspberry-centered, we did a lot with puree and seeds. And they were pretty!

Such a vibrant, exciting red!

June 8

2007-06-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

The next day, my mother and I went to Palm Springs to look around, even though we only stayed for about a half hour in the city proper because my mother gets lost ALL THE TIME and SO EASILY. Here are some pictures of that:

I like the parallels between these two photos.

The Sonny Bono statue on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame.

You thought I was kidding about that, right? Nope. I think the stars are gay icons or financial contributors to the city. I can't imagine that Marlene Dietrich actually ever went to Palm Springs. There's just not much to do there.

The drive back through windmill country.

I had dinner with Tal's family too, and he came up with this interesting fruit-faced fellow:

He ate his before I could take a picture, so I duplicated it.

I then went with Samantha to Ventura to her parents' house, and we baked. She took care of her chinchilla and cats, and this is the chinchilla, Ashou:

Cute fella.

We made petit-fours, which were not as successful as the ones we made the following day, but bear with me. This is the one I ate half of. (They're about an inch squared; you can imagine how sweet they are if I could only eat half of that.)

He's the crazy-eyed one. You can see more of the ones we made on the following day.

June 7

2007-06-07T23:24:00.000-07:00

On something of a whim, my mother and I decided to go to Palm Desert to join my aunt and uncle who are visiting from France. They have a time share there, and it's honestly somewhat beyond me why they like it so much. They like to swim, I guess.

I can't remember what we were talking about.

Now my mother is talking to me even though I had the camera pointed at her.

Corona could pay me for this picture.

On our quest for dinner (at 9pm) we ended up in the main Marriott hotel. Pretty nifty.

June 6

2007-06-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

My new camera came in today! It's awesome. I am quite pleased with it:

Pretend that's not backwards. It's obviously taken in a mirror.

One of the first photos I've taken with this. I really like the quality.

In other news, I put the gargoyle from my former apartment in Berkeley up on the wall here at home.

I think it looks nice on there. Maybe not as good as in the window, but still good.

June 5

2007-06-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

This was my brother's birthday. For dinner, we went to Marie Callendar's, which I suspect he only likes because of the pie. I cannot imagine anyone being moved by the underwhelming food they have there. But their pie is good. But anyway. I took a whole bunch of pictures of him, and these are the ones that I find notable.

I really like this one.

He thinks he looks like a blowfish in this one.

He is laughing and telling me what for.

Creepy!

Arguably the best one, though he looks older... and like someone else, though I can't quite place who.

Happy birthday with pie. Though he blew out one of my candles!! Yes, I had candles too; we hadn't celebrated mine yet.

Drollery abounds.

My mother films.

And, of course, the cats are just cute:

June 4

2007-06-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

All I did on this day that is in any way notable is that I bought these shoes:

Pale is the new awesome.

June 3

2007-06-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

My room, with all my stuff pretty much still in boxes:

I'm still adjusting!

Yes, I have two trash cans now.

Now with bonus self-portrait! You can also see my apple corer in this photo.

My laptop open to the screen that is open right now, though this one has writing in it now.

Moving in sucks.

June 2

2007-06-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

On my second calendar day of being in LA, Samantha and I went to a Hawaiian festival, which was pretty cool. I think it was technically a Tribute to Recreation, with a Hawaiian village, but that was the most interesting part anyway, so that's what it effectively was to us.

Old fashioned games in the other part of the festival.

Samantha and I eat corn dogs. What's a festival without a corn dog?

We did not eat there, but that's quite a name for a stand.

This was pretty bizarre. This woman was reading on her own chair in the concert area with paper in her ears, and sitting completely separately from the man she apparently came with. Why bother going at all if you're going to try and block out the whole festival?

The live band started playing "Sweet Home Alabama," and these big Hawaiian guys started dancing with the little Asian ladies. It was sweet.

Pretty nifty kid's slide, though I would have been scared, just like this little girl who crept down with her feet instead of sliding. That would have been me if I were younger.

It didn't go very high.

Of course, Hawaiian hula dancers. They were very good, and apparently all very scholastically achieved.

SHAVED ICE!! Mmmmm. Passion orange and watermelon flavored syrup...

This was cute. The kid was bored though and kept trying to wake up his dad.

These boys in the spinning centrifuge roller coaster were rocking side to side with their arms around each other, in time to the oldies music playing. I thought it was pretty funny.

And, for good measure, Zadie licking her chops.

June 1

2007-06-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

All I did this day was move down south. Here's me doing it, riding high in the U-Haul. I am smashing and stylish.

One of those pictures has me smiling, but I prefer this one because I look annoyed, which I probably was. Driving a U-Haul is annoying.

In other news, I have a new favorite thing at In N Out:

This is an awful, out of focus picture, but when you have a vanilla and strawberry shake blended together in one cup, it is delicious. Next time, I'll try strawberry with chocolate. After being a patron of In N Out for several years now, I am kind of disillusioned with the menu. It needs some additions, because you can't really have anything new or different, because it's all pretty much the same. So when I discover something like the two-shakes-in-one-cup thing, it's a Hallelujah moment.