taking over one more step of the process

August 16, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Yesterday, after church, Kathy and I stopped by the Farmer's Market as we often do. I got my usual dish (bbq chicken on what looks like an oval-shaped pizza), but accompanied it with a new drink -- a mix of pomegranite juice and lemonade. The lady I ordered from recommended it, and I wasn't disappointed.

After we ate Kathy bought some fruit, commenting as usual on how cheap it was. Then we walked along the edge of the parking lot to Cost Plus World Market. Ostensibly we were going because Kathy needed mugs, but really I end up finding something I just must have every time I'm there. This time was no exception, and I walked out with a little hand-crank coffee grinder and some whole bean Columbian coffee. Alan (who of late can't be bothered to pull himself away from the wonder of Hawaii and post to his blog more than once every few weeks) had told me that if I'm going to drink coffee I really must grind it myself, so I figured hey why not. And the hand-crank grinder was cheap (under $20) and looked cool, so I reasoned that even if I didn't end up using it often it would look good on the counter.

Yesterday afternoon I gave it a test run, just to see what the process was like. This morning I did it again before work. Both times I overestimated the amount of beans needed to fill my 3-cup mug. Both times I ended up with the little grinder drawer absolutely full of coffee. And both times I made some of the blackest coffee you've ever seen. Now, I like strong coffee, so aside from being a bit of a waste this isn't that bad of a thing. It's powerful stuff, and you can tell that way before you ever drink it.

So a little fine-tuning is to be had, sure, but on the whole I'm glad -- as usual -- that I followed Alan's advice.

three nights of catch-up

August 15, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Time to catch up on a couple nights' worth of events...

Thursday evening we made our way over to Amboeba and were not disappointed. PJ Harvey played a short but focused set, and covered a good range of albums with her song selection. Thanks to traffic we missed the very beginning of the set, which I'm going to guess she started with The Letter, but that was the only disappointing part of the night. Sound was infinitely better than last time I saw an in-store there... I don't know what changed for that.

Friday night Kathy and I went to the Hollywood Bowl to see the the Tchaikovsky Spectacular. Now, I'm not really much for the symphony but it was cool none-the-less. I think that it's safe to say after Friday night that the new Hollywood Bowl shell is completely fireproof, as if not the fireworks (many of the spinning showers of sparks variety) would definitely have burned it down.

Last night Miggles, Kathy, and I made our way over to Hollywood and saw Collateral at the Arclight. It was only my second time seeing a movie in the dome, and I think I've come to terms with the fact that paying a little more is no excuse for seeing a movie there. It really is incredible; the sound and picture are both perfect. Collateral was cool since it was largely set downtown. A couple LA related things that I noticed:

  • Why did they pretend the Gas Company building (where the attorneys' office was set) was on Spring? When Jada Pinkett Smith first gets in the car she gives Jamie Foxx an address in the 300-block of Spring, but then their actual destination is the Gas Co, with a Grand street sign easily visible. It's one of those things that doesn't matter at all, which is why it's confusing. Why not just say it's on 5th or Grand or whatever street the building officially fronts?

  • When Jamie Foxx speeds up at the end he really speeds up. He's whistling through the above-ground/below-ground bit of 4th St, and then all of a sudden he's down south by Staples Center flipping his car.

  • Related to that scene... It's interesting that Collateral chose to date itself a bit by keeping the big Playmakers ad on the side of Hotel Fig. That would have seemed to have been a perfect spot for a little digital painting and a product placement.

  • I loved when Foxx runs by The Standard and steals the guy's cell phone. I sat there thinking, "Stupid Standard yuppy... Now he'll go complain about how unsafe downtown is."

  • Of course right after Foxx runs past the Standard (6th and Flower) he runs up the parking garage at "777 Tower". The logo for 777 was really familiar, and I couldn't place it for a second. Then I realized the parking garage is the one for 7+Fig, where Kathy and I parked Wednesday night on our way to CPK.

  • I'm sure the MTA wasn't all that thrilled about their placement in the film. "Call us Metro and we'll take you anywhere." Yet Cruise twice calls it the MTA. And then he dies on the Blue Line, which has enough image problems of its own without that help.

None of these really affect the movie, but I just found them interesting.

Friday Questions, round two

August 13, 2004 by Eric Richardson

For the second edition of his Friday LA Blogs questions, Jonah's asking about food. I like food.

Where is the last place you ate out?

  • Last night Kathy and I went to the CPK in 7th+Fig. I had the Carne Asada pizza. She had a salad with chicken on it. We sat down at 9:10 and made it back to my apartment in time to catch Swimming Pool at 10 on Starz.

How often do you eat out?

  • If you include fast food, usually once a day. Going somewhere sit down, probably twice a week. Today Kathy's going to come downtown for lunch and we're going to go back to the Yorkshire Grill, where I ate lunch on Wednesday.

Where is the place you eat most?

  • The cafeteria at JPL probably doesn't count, does it? I don't know a place I go "most". I'm going to cheat and say downtown. There's just so much here all in walking distance. I can't claim to have put even a dent in the list of places to try.

Where do you tell your friends that they "have to try"?

What dish do they have to order when they get there?

  • Eh, whatever they want. I, on the other hand, always get the same thing: Fettucine a Limone with grilled chicken.

Where do you eat when money is not a concern?

  • You go eat steak, and you go where it's the best in LA and open 24 hours, obviously. (Pacific Dining Car, for those who haven't been there). On our first trip I ordered the baseball steak, because I am above all things curious. It really was roughly the proporitions of a baseball. When I ordered, the waiter said "Ah, getting a piece of the the rock."

Where do you eat when money is tight?

  • Used to be C&O's... I don't have as much of a fallback now as I did, though. If money's real tight (which, hey, it often is) I'll probably walk over to Grand Central Market and get a huge meal-sized taco for $2.

What restaraunt have you wanted to try but haven't been to yet?

  • Kathy and I were just talking about this yesterday... There are so many. Ciudad, because we've got a good coupon. Cafe Pinot because of the location. Well, anything Patina Group that I haven't tried, for that matter. I could go on, but you asked for one.

poor little cubbies

August 12, 2004 by Eric Richardson

It's got to be a rough time to be a Bruin. Their sports teams are second-fiddle in LA, the academic edge they once had is all but gone, and now we're stealing their faculty. From digitalcenter.org:

The staff and programs of the UCLA Center for Communication Policy have joined the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California in the newly created Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg.

Annenberg is my school at USC. There's a longer press release on Business Wire.

thanks, New York Times

August 12, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Is it odd that the New York Times is telling me about free wifi in my neighborhood? I ran across a story today, mostly fluff, talking about telco responses to people stealing wifi (mooching off neighbors). I don't really care about that part so much, but the very bottom contained the part I was interested in:

Two blocks from my apartment is the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and in it is a coffee bar where a customer can order an exceptional latte. The other day I spotted a notice there advertising free Internet access for Wi-Fi users.

I took it as a sign that since my days of Internet mooching were over, for whatever reason, maybe I just needed to start hanging out in this lovely space with my laptop. Better coffee than Starbucks, and no access charge. And no guilt, either. Life isn't so bad in the Wi-Fi age, after all.

Hmmm... Definitely worth checking out.