Apocalyptic Now

The view from my balcony late yesterday afternoon. I'm about 9-10 miles south of the Pacific Palisades fire, where this smoke is coming from:

 

 This morning:

About what I was expecting. Our air is brown. If I have to go out, I'll be digging out a mask from the COVID days. Also, the wind is kicking up again, which is bad.

I'm fortunate to not be in any of the fire areas, but it was terrifying and depressing to watch one fire after another crop up and explode yesterday and into the evening. One started in Eaton Canyon above Arcadia and wreaked havoc on Pasadena and surrounding areas. The Palisades fire has wiped out almost the entire town then headed into Malibu and apparently has destroyed blocks of homes on Pacific Coast Highway right on the beach as well as a number of venerable businesses including the Reel Inn and Malibu Feed Bin. It's also caused evacuations in north Santa Monica.

I've also heard there have been two fatalities, but considering how fast these fires spread, I won't be surprised if there are many more.

There's already been discussions online about how our state and local governments have handled water resources, forestry management, and budget cuts to local fire departments, but there will be plenty of time to examine that later. I'm sure there's plenty of blame to go around, and even with the catastrophic winds, I'm guessing that better management and funding of resources may not have prevented the fires themselves from spreading, but I'm thinking it didn't have to be this absolute carnage. I can't even bring myself to pull pictures and video for this post. When all is said and done, this is going to be destruction of historic proportions, and I feel so awful when I think of the thousands of people who have lost their homes and businesses. I don't know how much more people can take.

 

Updated 1/10/25: Just found out a friend lost her house in Altadena because of the Eaton Fire. This is just so brutal and awful.

Storm of the Century

So Hurricane Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles since 1939, has come and gone. In my part of town, the result was almost non-stop rain, heavy at times, for a period of about twenty-four hours. I didn't notice particularly high winds, although it was breezy at times but that's not unusual for us. I've seen higher winds just out shopping on a nice day. And by lunchtime Monday everything was bright and sunny again, the previous day's doom and gloom an old memory.

Unfortunately, not all areas were as lucky as mine. Palm Springs got hit hard. In fact, most of the really serious issues seem to be centered mostly in the desert area, although it turned out that cancelling their Sunday game in advance was a good move by the Dodgers, whose parking lot is an unorganized living hell after games on a good day. Overall, California got a lot of much-needed rain with no loss of life.

But because the most-hyped weather in years just wasn't enough, we also got an earthquake! I was laying on my bed reading and felt a soft jolt. For a second I thought Sophie had jumped onto the bed, but when I didn't see her I thought, "Was that an earthquake?" I got up and felt a couple seconds of swaying, which confirmed my suspicion. Other than that, that was it. It was very minor where I lived. The quake turned out to be a 5.1 centered in Ojai, in Ventura County. And (in addition to some social media "What's next, Sharknado? jokes) apparently it created a new word:

Leave it to The Babylon Bee to get into the act:

 

And now, back to our regularly scheduled August weather.

"Ava": Interrupted

 

So today I was supposed to blog about the Geffen Playhouse's "Ava: The Secret Conversations" starring Elizabeth McGovern. I'd never been to the Geffen and was looking forward to checking out a new theater as well as the show itself, which sounded amazing. It's about the writing of legendary star Ava Gardner's biography, which occurred later in her life as she fought the effects of a stroke, aging, and her drinking and smoking. I'm a sucker for anything to do with historic Hollywood, and seeing McGovern was going to be an additional treat. I'm a fan of the Downton Abbey TV series, and I remember her back in the 1980's when she was a stunning and talented starlet with what looked like a superstar future.

 

The play was fantastic and was progressing well until, about halfway through the show, the lights went out. Yep, power outage. Of all the dates I could have selected, I was at the one where there was an outage in Westwood. The actors (McGovern and Aaron Cotsa Ganis, who plays the writer trying to wrangle the uncooperative Ava's life story) held their positions for about five seconds to see if the lights would return, and when they didn't, McGovern turned to the audience and chirped, "Hello!" It was freaking adorable.

The theater's wonderful stage manager came out a couple of times to let us know they were attempting to get information from Southern California Edison about restoring power, and after about fifteen minutes had to announce the news wasn't good and they were going to have to call it a night. The audience was disappointed, but was also cooperative and understanding. We were informed that we'll hear from the box office on Thursday about rescheduling. I'm really hoping they can work that out - the half of the show I saw was spectacular. Both actors are off the charts amazing. Hopefully I can see the whole thing soon and post a review. 

One thing that really blew me away was finding out that McGovern also wrote this play. I didn't realize that until I was reading the Playbill before the show started. It's not enough that she's a great actress, but based on the part of the show I saw she's also an amazing writer. 

 

Updated: Rescheduled for May!

 

Uh-oh

I'm not gonna be able to fit through the door. Willie Mae's is coming to L.A., specifically Venice. Right down the street from me, practically.

 

We didn't make it to Willie Mae's when we were in New Orleans in 2016 for Bouchercon, but the plan has always been to return and this place, known for having the best fried chicken on the planet, has been on my to-do list for some time in anticipation of my next trip to NOLA. 

 

It's going to be in Venice, on Lincoln just south of Rose, across from the Whole Foods. My only question is about parking. I have to drive right by that location going to and from my monthly hair appointment in Santa Monica and I'll bet there will be lines around the block, just like in NOLA.

Can't wait!

Charmed, I'm sure!

The other day this popped up on my Facebook feed: Celebrating Every Publication by Kate Fellowes. 

What Kate has done over the years is fill bracelets with charms relating to her stories and essays each time she's been published. She's currently on her third bracelet.

I thought it was a pretty cool idea, so I looked at my whopping four published short stories and started thinking about charms. Here's what I came up with. 

1 - "Crime Drama/Do Not Cross", which appeared in LAst Resort, is a Hollywood-based story about a failed actress turned private eye, and who is obsessed with a CSI franchise-type show that is about to end its run. So I figured a Hollywood sign charm would be awesome.

I had a surprisingly tough time finding Hollywood-related charms. In addition, a lot of them are intended to have chains looped through them, while I'm looking for charms with clasps. So far this is the closest thing I've found and I'm not really sold on it. I love the comedy and tragedy masks, but not for this story.

I did find this clapper board, but not happening at that price. Even the charms at Brighton (where I was really hoping to find what I needed to make this happen) aren't anywhere near that, and that is not an inexpensive place to shop.

2 - "Like Deja vu All Over Again", which appeared in Crossing Borders, was based on a nightmare I had years ago about being carjacked. So obviously a car charm is needed here.

Again, I was surprised by the apparent lack of car-related charms. The car in the story is an old Toyota Corolla, so it can't be a fancy car. I might need to brainstorm this one a bit more.

3 - In "The Legend of Bahama Bobby", which was just published in The Fish That Got Away, Bobby is a painter, so something painterly, obviously.

I found the perfect charm here. Is this cute or what?

4 - Lastly we have "Christine Thirteen", which is just now being published in Avenging Angelenos (I'm still swooning over that cover). I don't want to give too much away, but the obvious choice is a disposable coffee cup with a lid.

I was surprised how few of these I could find. You'd think they'd be all over the place. I needed a cup with a lid as opposed to a cup and saucer, and eventually found this.

So far I haven't bought any of these because I don't want the collection to be spotty, but if I can find charms to go with all four stories, it's pretty certain I'll be adding to my jewelry collection. Plus, it would be a heck of a conversation piece, don't you think?

RIP ArcLight and Pacific Theaters

Another casualty of you know who: ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theaters permanently closed. Included under the ArcLight/Pacific umbrella: the historic Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and the flagship ArcLight Hollywood.

There's been a lot of reaction to this news here in Southern California and from the entertainment industry, and nobody is happy about it. It also seems to have caught everyone completely by surprise. When I first saw it I was so shocked I thought it had to be a mistake. Unfortunately, it's true.

I'm not terribly worried about the Dome itself - it was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1998. I believe this gives it protected status and even if it doesn't I can't imagine a scenario where anyone would be allowed to knock it down. I'm pretty sure somewhere along the line some entity will resurrect it and get it back into the movie business. 

But the loss of the ArcLight/Pacific brand is a big one for Los Angeles. Most of the significant closures in the past year were classic and popular restaurants. These were businesses that should still be here. Their closures were due solely to loss of business because of the shutdown and not by any fault of their own. When I see states that didn't have California's strict COVID closure policies doing just fine...well, that just make this news even tougher to take.

Other local theaters that won't be reopening because of the closure include the Pacific Theaters at The Grove and ArcLights in Pasadena (Paseo Colorado), Sherman Oaks, El Segundo and Santa Monica. The ArcLight's website has already been scrapped with just the stark closing announcement.

But hey, at least The French Laundry seems to be thriving!

Hugs 😥

Update: There is now a petition to save the Cinerama Dome. Again, I don't think the structure itself is in danger, but a show of support isn't going to hurt its future prospects, so...

Update 4/14/21: The petition originally aimed for 2,500 signatures and blew right past that number. As I type this, they have crossed the 8,400 mark and are now aiming for 10k!

Boarded up

Rolled up to my salon this morning to find this:

This is Killer Hair in Marina del Rey, which was just voted Best Hair Salon (again) in the Best of the Westside issue of The Argonaut. It doesn't usually look like this. It was a real jolt.

It turns out that boarding up the windows is a combination of concern over potential vandalism (aka rioting) because of the election, and the fact that there is a weed shop right next door. They felt if people start looting, the weed shop will be an attractive target, which could easily lead to Killer Hair's windows being smashed. It's already been a tough year for salons, so they don't want to have to shut down again. Hopefully they can pull down the boards soon and get back to business as usual.

Also, my hair looks fabulous.

Sigh

Got the new Westways Magazine from Auto Club today, and was greeted by this:

I know what to do in Marina del Rey, Westways.

Except live there, apparently.

An Olympian task

The fine folks over at Curbed L.A. have put together an interactive map of proposed locations for L.A.'s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games. And it is all over the place.

Each of those red dots represents a different location. The Coloseum, Staples Center, the Los Angeles Convention Center, Forum, Rose Bowl, Microsoft Theatre, Universal Studios, USC, UCLA, the new L.A. Rams/Chargers football stadium, and Riviera Country Club are among the venues that are actually in the Los Angeles area. Additional events would take place at the Long Beach Convention Center, Honda Center in Anaheim, and Bonelli Park in San Dimas, which is at the far east end of L.A. County (adorable little town, I lived there years ago). Another sports venue in Encino would also be used, but the winner for the most remote venue would be Lake Perris in Riverside County.

One thing I noticed is that the equestrian events would be in Encino. I think they were at Santa Anita when L.A. had the Olympics in 1984. Arcadia recently opened their Gold Line Station with a shuttle to and from Santa Anita, but it also looks like the Orange Line goes right by the Sepulveda Basin Sports Complex, so it looks like they've got public transportation covered. In fact, if we get the Olympics, Metro will have to really step up because they're gonna get slammed, especially to Downtown and Santa Monica. They're slammed now since the Expo Line to the beach opened. The company in Japan that makes their cars is cranking them out as fast as they can, but Metro is really behind in having the number of cars they need.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this bid. I'm wondering if they have backup locations in case some of the more long-distance venues prove to be a negative.

Let there be light!

Having recently moved back to the westside of town, I can vouch that when you get into this tunnel, it does get really dark, especially during the day when you're sporting your prescription Ray Bans: Tunnel under LAX runway to get some much-needed sprucing up.  For once, good use of our tax dollars.

Trendy = Douchey, at least for L.A. bars

Some of L.A.'s trendiest and most well-known bars made this hilarious list: The 25 Douchiest Bars in Los Angeles.  I have a feeling if I met the list's writer I'd really like him/her.  Someone who loves their booze, loathes pretentious douchebag types and can make me laugh like a hyena?  You are awesome.

Some of my favorite snarky comments from the list:

24. Renee's Courtyard Cafe (Santa Monica) (Patrons) take shots right from the bottle because no one taught them how to drink in public.

22. O'Brien's (Santa Monica) O'Brien's is living proof that if you combine an Irish pub with a beachside sports bar you will create hell on earth.

20. Baja Cantina (Marina del Rey) Baja is overrun with very pretty people with very little substance. You'll find men in tight t-shirts who have trickled down from Muscle Beach alongside actresses/models/singers who forgot to pursue their career because they were wasting their time at Baja on terrible margaritas and said men in tight t-shirts.

19. Dillon's Irish Pub (Hollywood) The all-female staff dresses in slutty Catholic schoolgirl outfits, making it a great place for douchebags of all ages to come get their creep on. Dillon's is not an Irish pub. It's a poor man's Hooters.

17. The Rooftop Bar at The Standard (DTLA) Admittedly, The Rooftop Bar at The Standard has one of the most incredible views you can find in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, someone went and told every pretentious Hollywood asshole in town.

16. SkyBar at The Mondrian (West Hollywood) When SkyBar opened, it was the place to go for anyone in the entertainment business. Although its time in the spotlight has passed, the sleaze lingers. The ladies here are either waiting to be “discovered” or looking for a sugar daddy. There's more L.A. cliché here than even a season of Entourage could contain.

14. The Hudson (West Hollywood) (re: The "straight frat bros" that populate the bar): They're loud.  And they're high-fiving like roofies just became legal.

12. Brennan's Pub (Marina del Rey) You'll leave here feeling so dirty you were even in the same room with these douchebags that the IHOP across the street starts looking like the Four Seasons. 

9. South (Santa Monica) The bros at this Southern themed bar offer the best in vapid conversation and man jewelry. Stay late enough and you can watch these charmers turn into desperate drunken shitshows. The patrons at a real Southern bar handle their liquor with class.

3. Baja Sharkeez (Hermosa Beach) Los Angeles locals have been fleeing Sharkeez over the last few years. This bar has become a haven for naïve L.A. transplants and the South Bay's broiest bros. Frat guys and newly-legal girls love this place for the cheap booze and party-type atmosphere. Everyone else loves this place for rounding up the worst people on Hermosa Pier and keeping them there for the night.

1. Saddle Ranch (West Hollywood) Step aside, every other bar on this list, we've come to the very definition of douchey: Saddle Ranch. This is the bar of the douchebag, by the douchebag, for the douchebag. With the watered-down cocktails, overflowing toilets, and abundance of bedazzled clothing, you have to constantly remind yourself that you're a patron at a bar and not an extra on Jersey Shore. 

Do read the whole thing.  Seriously, as a writer, it made me insanely jealous.  There's nothing like hilariously sarcastic reviews of people, places and things that take themselves sooooo seriously.  I enjoyed this one immensely.

Hat tip to my friend Liz for putting this up on Facebook.

More things to make me homesick for the City of Angels

Via Hidden Los Angeles (oh thank you thank you thank you for posting this!), it's L.A. Light:

LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

Per the filmmaker: I sought out to capture the electric radiance of Los Angeles at night.  Mission accomplished, sir!

So much to love about this: That fact that it's night (I've gotten to the point where I so much prefer night to day), the Hollywood Sign looking down on the city, glass elevators zipping up and down what I believe is the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, planes looking like UFO's heading into LAX, the spirograph design created by the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier, traffic lights flipping red and green in front of Disney Hall, and all the city lights.  Just gorgeous.  As much as I love ocean views, the fact is that city views seriously rock.  I wanted to move into that place around the 00:37 mark just for the view until on a subsequent viewing I realized it was still the Hollywood Sign, not the inside of a building.

Angelenos 1, Carmageddon 0

Carmageddon, which was supposed to destroy Los Angeles from the inside, has come and gone with unexpected success.

After completion of the partial destruction of the Mulholland Drive Bridge, the 405 Freeway was reopened 17 hours ahead of schedule yesterday and there was much rejoicing. 

One driver in a Hyundai coupe seemed to be relishing his brief roadway freedom, gliding across all four lanes from the center divider to an exit lane and back again.

It didn't take long for things to return to normal. 

Traffic remained light and free-flowing on the northbound 405 Freeway until 4:59 p.m. Sunday, when a collision forced a lane closure, the first post-Carmageddon SigAlert.

That worked so well, let's do it again next year!

Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Oh Los Angeles, I love you. Don't ever change.

This was the hit of the local internets this morning: Man arrested after running naked down the 405. And yes, there is a picture. Way to go commuter!

The only way this could be any better is if he hadn't assaulted anyone. I hope the woman is okay. None of the reports I've seen so far have any details of the attack or how badly she was hurt.

Okay, he wasn't completely nude. He was wearing socks. But still...only in LA!

Dinner at SteingartenLA

The Bro and I recently (and belatedly) celebrated his birthday at a new restaurant on the Westside near his office.

SteingartenLA, at 10543 W. Pico Boulevard, just opened a few weeks ago and has had some pretty decent buzz.  They also have an extremely interesting menu that includes sausages made from rabbit, alligator, elk and bison, along with more conventional Polish, Bratwurst, chicken, duck and lamb selections, plus tons of beers.  The Bro and I are wine people, but he's getting into beers and wanted to try the place out.  Our awesome waitress Natalia was very knowledgeable about their beer selection and was able to make recommedations that we both enjoyed.  I asked for something that didn't have a really hardcore "beer taste" to it and ended up with Los Abbey Devotion and The Bro had Dogfish Head Aprihop.  We both finished our beers, so that's two thumbs up, even from a non-beer person like me.

I decided to take a walk on the wild side and try the elk sausage.  I figured as long as I was at a place with such exotic (to me) dishes it would be a shame not to try one.  The sausages are served on a bun with a selection of toppings (I chose caramelized onions).  It was good, although if I didn't know it was elk I would have thought it was a more common meat.

Yes, there is an elk sausage buried under all those caramelized onions.

For me the real highlight was the side of sweet potato fries.  They were absolutely delicious and I'm already working on my own version of them that doesn't involve deep frying.

MADE. OF. YUM.

The Bro played it safe with the Chef's Choice Burger with parmesan fries.  It's a good-sized burger and he polished it off, along with most of the fries.

Fuzzy Crackberry photos are fuzzy.

SteingartenLA just opened this month and it looked like they're a welcome addition to the neighborhood; the place was packed.  It's a place we will definitely return to, as well as a new place for The Bro to meet with clients.  Natalia mentioned that they'd had a couple rough nights early on when they were short-staffed, and it's not a place you go for a quick dinner, but the service was good and like I mentioned before, very helpful to a beer novice like me.

Total for dinner (and beers!) for two was about $45 before the tip.

Welcome to the neighborhood! (No, I don't know why their sign says "Hendricks").

SteingartenLA links/reviews: on Facebook - Eater LA - L.A. Times - The Craft Beer Chronicles on This is Brand X