Oct 10 2011

NYC for Mike’s wedding

In early September, Alicia and I flew to NYC for my friend Mike’s wedding.  It was Alicia’s first trip to NYC (and my second).  We caught a red-eye flight from LAX to Newark (through Cincinnati), and arrived to NYC Friday morning.  Because we had flew into Newark, we had to take the train into the city from the Newark airport.  So our first experience with NYC was emerging from Penn Station.  We had to pick up the keys to the apt we were staying at in Brooklyn, which was a short walk to 5th Ave.  Along the way, we walked through Koreatown.  We had left one Koreatown for another (though NYC’s K-town is a much smaller deal than LA as its only one block).

Koreatown NYCAfter picking up the keys, we got some lunch and then headed to Brooklyn to drop off our stuff and get ready to head out for the wedding.  We were able to walk over to Mike’s apt from where we were staying and then go with the larger group heading over to the wedding site.  As for the wedding itself, it was probably one of the best weddings that I’ve attended.  It was low-key, but not overtly.  They had friends that had provided homebrewed beer as part of the beverages and it was catered by a pizza truck (I don’t remember if it was wood-fired…but it was definitely artisan pizza).  Mike and Jessica had written their own vows (Mike’s referencing his obsessive fandom of the Oregon Ducks and other sports).  A real good time.  We did end up bowing out around 11pm (ET)…since we had very little sleep since the day before (and what sleep we had was airplane sleep).

Mike & JessicaSaturday, one of Alicia’s college friends came up to the city from Rutgers.  We met up with her at Central Park and walked around there for a while and then I left to meet up with Mike at the NYC Duck’s bar to watch the football game (see the vows reference above).  One cool thing that happened on Saturday, is that while Alicia and her friend were checking out the Highline Park, they ran into a La Newyorkina cart.  We had just received her Paletas cookbook from the KCRW cookbook club a week or two before the trip.  (Alicia and I went back the next day, because I wanted to try one as well).  After the Duck game was over, I met back up with them and we ended up heading down to the tip of Manhattan.  We walked by Ground Zero, where they were going to have the big grand opening of the 9/11 Memorial the next day, and then walked down to see if we could catch the Staten Island Ferry.  When we got to the terminal, we had just missed a ferry and didn’t feel like waiting for the next one.  Because it was the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 the next day, they had set up white flags for the persons killed in the attacks in Battery Park.  Each flag had each persons name on it.  It was a pretty impressive display (it takes a lot of park space to put up that many flags).

9/11 FlagsIt was a quick trip (we had to head back Sunday), but we both had fun.  Alicia wants to move there (I think its a nice place to visit…but I wouldn’t want to live there).

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/nyc-mikeswedding/

Sep 22 2011

World Rhino Day!

The March of MankindToday is the WWF’s second annual World Rhino Day supporting the efforts to end rhino poaching worldwide.

In honor of World Rhino Day, Flickr is highlighting photos of rhino’s today. (the images in this post come from flickr…many more here).

A rhino's smile

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/world-rhino-day/

Sep 08 2011

The Skin I Live In

A new film from Almodóvar and the return of Antonio Banderas to a leading role in one of his films:

I’m looking forward to seeing this when it comes out Oct 14th.  Looks like a good creepy thriller from a great director.  Official Site

(view the post on my site if you can’t see the video above)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/the-skin-i-live-in/

Aug 23 2011

OK Go & The Muppet Theme Song

The Muppet Theme Song interpreted by OK Go (both visually and musically):

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/ok-go-the-muppet-theme-song/

Aug 18 2011

Mushroom Farmin’

Courtesy of Green LA Girl and Back to the Roots, I received one of Back to the Roots Pearl Oyster Mushroom growing kits.  Basically its a box with a bag inside composed of recycled coffee grounds and mushroom spores.

Mushroom Farm Day 1

Day 1

The instructions for the kit were pretty easy.  You can see in the picture above, where I cut a cross in the bag.  After that, I soaked the whole bag in water for 24 hours to make sure everything was nice and moist.  Returning the bag to the box all I had to do was mist under the flaps of the bag twice a day and wait for them to grow.

mushrooms sprout (day 9)

Mushrooms Sprout! (Day 9)

Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for when they sprouted.  I was off on my trip to the Bay Area and Alicia was watering my mushrooms at the time.  She told me she had misted them the previous evening and when she woke up the next morning they had sprouted!  After that they continued to grow fairly quickly.  By the time I got home the next day they were almost ready to harvest.

Mushrooms Day 10

Day 10

I ended up having to harvest this first batch a little earlier than I would have liked, but luckily I still have the other side of the bag to grow.  Tonight is Day 1 for the second batch in fact.  According to the Back to the Roots website, I may even be able to get additional batches out of the same bag (only the first two are expected).  Even so, the mushrooms were pretty decent sized when I harvested them, and quite tasty in the Japanese style curry I used them in.

Day 11

Day 11 (right before harvesting)

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/mushroom-farmin/

Aug 17 2011

SuperHeavy: Miracle Worker

The first single from the forthcoming album from the super group SuperHeavy (Damian Marley, Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger, A.R. Rahman and Joss Stone).  Looking forward to hearing more from this album, but this is a pretty decent start.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/superheavy-miracle-worker/

Aug 17 2011

Growing your own food may be the only way…

To insure you know where exactly your food comes from.  Following up the high profile raid in  2010 of raw food buying club Rawsome in Venice, earlier this month, both Rawsome and this time Healthy Family Farms in Santa Paula were again raided and its owners/operators arrested.  At first I was a little disgusted with what I thought was an overreaction by government agencies.  To shop at Rawsome, you have to become a member and acknowledge the risks of food that may not meet all government standards for processing (ie its raw and hasn’t been pasteurized or sprayed with chemicals, etc).  You can view the Rawsome Club agreement here.  Healthy Family Farms (HFF) is at many local farmer’s markets, including the Hollywood Farmer’s Market (where Alicia and I shop).  They have a CSA that provides for a discount on all items, as well as makes available additional items for pre-order for pick up at the market of your choice.  To join the CSA, you also have to sign an agreement similar to the Rawsome agreement, you can view it here.  After visiting the farm during one of their open houses, I decided to join the HFF CSA.

Now that the dust (and shock) of the initial raid/arrests have begun to settle, things have started to leak out that all may not be what it appears to be in regards to Rawsome & HFF.  As Erik at Root Simple writes, we may be getting “A Raw Deal.”  There seems to be evidence emerging that indicates that HFF is purchasing conventionally raised eggs and meat and then repackaging them for sale as coming from the farm in Santa Paula.  When I first heard this rumor, I dismissed it as a misunderstanding, as HFF had mentioned “rescuing” animals from other farms either going out of business or getting in trouble for mistreating animals.  But now I’m not so sure. (More info about HFF and its owner can be found here.)

These two examples aren’t the only local examples of this breach of trust.  In Sept 2010, the local NBC affiliate did an investigative report on farmer’s market vendors not being completely honest on where the goods they sold came from (as well claims of being pesticide-free).

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

As Erik at Root Simple says:

This type of fraud, repackaging cheap wholesale food products and passing them off as organic/raw etc. is, I believe, widespread.

That list of reasons to grow your own food, if you can, keeps getting longer . . .

I’m not sure how all this will play out in the end, this is still just one side of the story, and we do live in a innocent until proven guilty world in the US.  I definitely will be thinking twice this Sunday when I get eggs at the market this week.  Will I look at some of the other vendors as better options?  Is HFF’s note in this weeks email of more limited egg availability and reduction of farmer’s market locations an indication that some of these allegations are true?  Right now, we really only have rumors and pieces of evidence that have not been judged.

We also don’t have HFF’s side of the story. Only the email copied below, asking for patience while the case works its way through the system and to take any potential motive in mind for anything negative you may hear:

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/growing-your-own-food-may-be-the-only-way/

Aug 16 2011

Berkeley, San Francisco, & Santa Clara (for the Timbers!)

I Spent a long weekend in the Bay Area to go see the Timbers play the San Jose Earthquakes last weekend.  Being that I’m still unable to drive, I took the train up (flights were more expensive than I wanted to pay).  I do love the train (and look forward to high speed options coming in the distant future).  I was able to do some reading and enjoyed a beer from home on the way up.

I stayed with my sister and her fiance (well he was only there the first night) in Berkeley.

One of the main reasons for the trip was to go to the Timbers game vs the San Jose Earthquakes.  So Saturday afternoon, I took the CalTrain down to Santa Clara for the match to meet up with the other members of the Timbers Army that had traveled to the match.  I have some pictures, but this video gives a little better idea of the match day experience:

The rest of my trip, I spent mainly hanging out in San Francisco walking around.  I tried to go to new areas this trip instead of the usual suspects of the Mission & Haight/Asbury.  (I wasn’t however able to escape going to the Ferry Building multiple times, they do a pretty good Farmer’s Market on Saturday’s, and the more permanent vendors inside are just too good.)  So Sunday, I struck out from the Ferry Building and decided to walk along Embarcadaro towards the Palace of Fine Arts (and possibly the Golden Gate beyond).  Along the way, I stopped at the TCHO Chocolate Factory (and tasting room) and the Boudin Bakery (and museum/factory tour).  I didn’t take any pictures of the chocolate factory (they weren’t producing on Sunday), but I did get a few on the bakery’s factory tour.

Boudin Bakery

After grabbing some lunch at Boudin, I continued on towards the Palace of Fine Arts.  It was a typical San Francisco Day, blanketed in a slight layer of fog that just didn’t want to burn off.

San Francisco Days

I finally made it over to the Palace of Fine Arts (a new place visited in San Francisco) and debated what to do next.  Would I continue on and walk over the Golden Gate Bridge, or would I head over to the Mission to get a loaf of Tartine Bread.  In the end, I decided on the bread, as the Golden Gate would be there the next day and Monday’s were no-bread days at Tartine.

Palace of Fine ArtsMonday, I headed back over to San Francisco for some more exploring.  This time I ended up at Sutro Heights Park, where the Cliff House Restaurant is, and the Seal Rocks are just offshore.Pacific from Sutro HeightsMonday evening, I met up with my friend Cristy Rose at a local pub in Berkeley (The Albatross) and spent the night at the house she was house sitting at.  We had a nice brunch in the morning (with fresh eggs from the backyard chickens), walked around Berkeley some, then it was off to the train station for my trip home.  All in all, a nice relaxing trip.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/berkeley-san-francisco-santa-clara-for-the-timbers/

Aug 11 2011

Love and Intimacy (and eyeglasses)

Reposted from nevermind the bricolage:

Devendra Banhart at the Rainbow House – Director’s Cut from Oliver Peoples on Vimeo.

Oliver People’s purveyors of the finest in eyewear and trading in very cool music and aesthetics have produced a short film for their 2011 campaign featuring Devendra Banhart and his real life girlfreind, exploring ideas of love and intimacy, in the glorious setting of John Lautner’s Rainbow House. Love the song.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/love-and-intimacy-and-eyeglasses/

Aug 09 2011

4 years

4 years ago today…I arrived in LA.

Purely coincidentally, I happen to be on a train returning to LA from a long weekend vacation in the Bay Area.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/4-years/