Ribbit...Ribbit...01 Feb 2010 09:34 am
Ribbit...Ribbit...31 Jan 2010 07:34 pm
I took this photo a month ago in Silverlake, on Sunset Blvd. My friend, Victor, had recently arrived from Sao Paolo and I was showing him around the neighborhood that he would soon call home. You see, my friend Taina was leaving town for a couple of months and needed a subletter for her place. Coincidentally, my buddy Victor was arriving from Brazil shortly and needed a place to rent. When Taina handed over the keys to her place in Silverlake, CA, I knew it would be the perfect place for Victor to begin his LA Story.
Sadly, that first day Victor moved into his new apartment, he was a broken man. He missed home, could barely speak English, and didn’t know more than 3 people in Los Angeles. While we were eating at Pho Cafe (his first time trying Pho), the thought of living alone for the next 6 months away from everything he knew, really hit him, and he broke down in tears, right there, in the middle of the restaurant. I didn’t know what to do except to reassure him that he’d be alright and that this time away would be one of the greatest adventures in his life. Although I felt bad for him at the moment and I had no idea what he was going through, I knew that he would break out of his funk and eventually appreciate his situation. After we finished up lunch, I took him to the grocery mega store known as Ralph’s, to pick up some supplies for the week. It was quite an experience trying to figure out what he wanted and needed. I kept trying to get him to go for the Banquet TV Dinners (10 for 10!!!), a staple of my college days, but he just gave me a dirty look. He was more interested in weird stuff like brown rice, salads, cereal, and ground beef (only old ppl buy ground beef). I guess Brazilians are a bit more versed in proper nutrition than most Americans are (me). Aside from the odd food choices (no chips??), I could tell that the trip to the supermarket lifted Victor’s spirits a bit and that he would survive that lonely first night.
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A month went by, the holidays came and went, and a new job began for me at the beginning of the new year. Aside from brief chats online, I hadn’t seen or spoken to Victor since that first day. The holidays are always busy, ya know? Between christmas, new year’s, my birthday, who has time to do anything? Plus, it’s hard to get out from the vacuum of home when you’ve got great friends/gf only miles away… Whatever the excuse was, I guess I felt kind of bad for not checking up on him more often. I almost felt a bit responsible for his stay here since I had arranged the whole apartment thing. I began to worry about how he was adapting to his new surroundings and if he had met any new friends. I hope he had. I gave him a call.
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Turns out he’s doing better than ever now! He’s met a ton of people in his area and around LA who he can call friends. He’s 3 weeks into a free English course and speaking volumes better than when we first met up. Most impressively, he’s somehow finagled an interview with the Lee Strasburg School of Acting! You’ve got to ask him about that story, it’s right out of a Hollywood movie.
It’s almost February now and Taina will be coming back from her trip soon. Victor will have to look for a new place to live in a couple weeks, but this time, he’ll be much more prepared to make a change. In fact, I’d fancy to say that he’s probably LOOKING FORWARD to moving out of Silverlake and continue his journey somewhere else.
I wish I had a photo of Happy Victor, but I didn’t think about that the last time we hung out. Damn it.
Ribbit...Ribbit...05 Jan 2010 12:30 pm
Premature coffee refill should result in termination.
I’m not sure if I’m alone on this one, but boy does it bother me when the waitress comes over to refill your coffee halfway through a cup without asking first.
Running low on water? Sure. Almost halfway throughyour diet coke and need a top off? No problem. BUT COFFEE??? A precisely thought out and executed ratio of coffee, milk, and sweetener? PLEASE, do not screw up my perfectly crafted mix by adding in another 1o parts coffee to my one part milk and sugar–especially if I didn’t ask for it.
Case in point. Julie and I were having breakfast at Marston’s Restaurant over in Pasadena the other day. We were feeling a bit adventurous and decided to gamble and sample the coffee there (knowing full well that our favorite Jones Coffee Roasters was down the street). Mistake. The coffee was your run of the mill burnt blend that probably comes from the same roasters as Denny’s, Big Boys, and McD’s. This didn’t necessarily ruin my breakfast since you can transform any bad brew into a drinkable concoction by adding the right combo of cream and sugar. What you can’t avoid is the sneaky ninja of a waitress swooping in and adding more coffee when you’re taking a bite out of your greasy sandwich. Now I have to either drink this new unknown mixture of coffee or try to guess the amount of milk and sugar to compensate…almost always resulting badly. Which brings me back to the point, WHY DO YOU POUR WITHOUT ASKING, LADY?
After the first blind-side refill, Julie got smart and repositioned the coffee mug so that it was against the wall, making it much harder for the waitress to successfully pull off a blind-side refill. 5 minutes later, after the moment Julie and I both blinked simultaneously, we could see her arm and full coffee dispenser retracting from over our table after a successful unwanted refill. Coffee assassin kills again.
It makes sense to refill water, soda, OJ, lemonade, ice tea (not an arnie palmer though), or any other single ingredient beverage. But when there’s more than one part in a carefully calculated drink, please think before you pour.
Someone on the web suggested putting a coaster on top of your coffee. (above)
/rant
For fun03 Dec 2009 12:22 pm
During my visit to Seattle, Jason’s girl buddy suggested I check out the weekly outdoor movie showing. That week’s movie was “Some Like it Hot” starring the one and only, Marilyn Monroe. Although I had never seen the movie before, I was only mildly excited because old movies don’t usually tickle my tummy. Also, prior to that day, I had never understood what all the fuss about Marilyn Monroe was. It only took about 30 minutes for me to finally understand it, and I understood it well. She had this innocent charm and beauty that never felt accidental, but wasn’t overly sexual either. To put it simply, she was HOT and I didn’t want her to leave the screen.
This photo was snapped as people were leaving the venue. Definitely a must visit if you’re ever in the area. It’s in the fremont district of Seattle…..right by Jason’s Coffee Shop!
Ribbit...Ribbit...03 Dec 2009 12:08 pm
I did not to expect to see this in Seattle. This dog seems wayyyy more LA right? I mean look at him, he’s checkin’ himself out in the side mirror!
Ribbit...Ribbit...03 Dec 2009 11:35 am
Thanks to Sakae and Binah for hosting me in Portland and for taking me around while I was visiting. These pictures were taken during an overcast morning on the coast of Oregon at Cannon Beach. edit: I do realize that none of the photos below actually show “Haystack Rock” very well.
Above: The Pacific Northwest is quite beautiful. The whole time I was there, I couldn’t stop thinking about Twilight. STFU already.
Above: The dog is running towards Haystack Rock. I am absolutely sure that Monstar would never ever run towards cold, crashing waves…or get 4 paws off the floor simultaneously for that matter.
Above: Either a pigeon lost its wings, or they were doing publicity for Paul Bettany’s new angel-killing movie, Legionnaire.
Above: Funnnnnn!
Ribbit...Ribbit...13 Nov 2009 12:09 pm
Every 2nd Thursday of the month, downtown la has this cool street art gathering called the downtown artwalk. It features walking tours, open art galleries, live art demos, fine street dining, and swap meet booths all over the arts district in dtla (5th, 6th, main, spring). My buddy James told me about this a while back, but I guess the thought of driving to downtown at like 6pm on a week night always discouraged me from going (who goes anywhere, except home, during that time?) . Well, I finally sacked up and decided to go this month because my couch is starting to develop a comfy butt print and it was scaring me.
Verdict: It was pretty cool. Great food trucks, cool art exhibits, and a ton of hipsters. If you go to the right galleries, there’s even free 2 buck chuck floating around. www.downtownartwalk.com
Above: every 2nd thursday, ppl get out their coolest threads and walk the streets, observing art and each other.
above: inside one of the galleries with a huge auditorium where music was playing.
Above: live art demonstration. An artist by the name of (can’t remember) did these charcoal portraits live in less than 5 minutes. It was pretty amazing. He didn’t use an eraser once!
Ribbit...Ribbit...09 Nov 2009 09:45 am
This morning started off like most other Monday mornings. My day started with the alarm going off at 8am. I got up, went upstairs and cooked some breakfast for the fam and watched the 11/9 edition of sports center/first take. Just like every other Monday morning, I went back downstairs after breakfast and hopped onto the computer to recap some of the debaucherous activities that took place over the weekend, via facebook.
Everything was the same. Same setting. Same drunken pics. Same disappointing feeling of not seeing pictures of hot girls making out. Same ugly girls making out. Everything was just as it was supposed to be. Until today.
While scanning through the multitudes of drunk Oi’s photos, I stumbled upon this peculiar photo, posted by Eric Han, snapped by an anonymous photographer, most likely taken with a digital camera. I mention that because it widely known that digital exposures sometime fail to capture the environment in its truest form.
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Above: 11/7/2009, taken sometime during the night between 11pm and 2am at Oiwake’s Restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles.
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Something about this photo raised hairs on the back of my neck. I couldn’t quite figure it out until I remembered a photo I HAD SNAPPED THAT SAME NIGHT. I remember taking a photo using my Fujifilm Instant film camera of this exact same scene.
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Conclusion: The ghost of Teddy Bruschi haunts Oi’s.
