Clarifying a Photo From The Past

Apr 29, 2009 in Otherwise Uncategorized, Photos

Last year, there was a small confusion about a photo published on this site. In particular, a regular reader thought that a ring previously displayed on DJ L’il Bit’s hand was an engagement ring — a reasonable enough thought, since it’s a pretty ring, but I wouldn’t buy her a $35 ring from Overstock.com for that purpose. I thought that was worth clarifying, especially since… well, I’ll let the photo here speak for itself: Read on…

And I Am Become Old

Apr 27, 2009 in Food, True Life Stories

Growing up, we were always big on the family meal. Breakfast was in a nook behind our kitchen, at a yellow and white Formica table that just fit in the corner next to the basement stairs. When I was young, I would read the cereal boxes while my parents read their newspapers; I learned every ingredient and every serving suggestion and solved every puzzle on the back. While we weren’t a sugary-cereal household, my mom and I did have our own breakfast indulgence: back in the days before most people used skim milk, we’d pour whole milk on our cereal and then top it off with some half-and-half. Read on…

One of The Few Times I'll Talk About Torture Without Mentioning Asher Roth

Apr 22, 2009 in Ye Olde Politicks

I blew a a big chunk of Friday evening reading the torture memos; probably not the kind of sunny-attitude stuff to start a weekend on. DJ L’il Bit had to drag me out of my melancholy. It was the kind of down you can only feel when you discover that it’s your country that is the bad guy on the Saturday morning cartoon. That said, I don’t feel bad that Obama’s done nothing so far. Read on…

What's the Best State for Small Business Taxes?

Apr 18, 2009 in Elsewhere

It’s tax season, and I’m as interested in how much the government is taking out of my pocket as the next guy. So I was intrigued to learn of a new small business-focused ranking of state tax burdens from Wall Street Journal Small Business reporter Kelly Spors. Now, I’ve started two businesses in famously high-tax California, and I’ve never found taxes to be a big enough problem that any of my time was justified in thinking about them rather than running the other parts of the business. But I know that a lot of businesses that have been around longer and are in more of a sustaining than a growth mode have real concerns about tax burdens, so I was looking forward to reading and learning from this report. Unfortunately, the ranking is comically sloppy.

Read on…

Boy, Seth Rogen's in a Lot Lately!

Apr 13, 2009 in Dreams

My gig was watching Jonah Hill. From a distance, that is; I was in hidden surveillance. He hung out at an intersection in the city, with a brownstone at one corner, an art deco skyscraper at the next, a small copse of bamboo — in which I’d encamped myself — opposite from the brownstone, and a white brick industrial building at the other. At the bottom floor of the skyscraper were the comic book store and sub shop Jonah liked to hang out at. He was talking to Seth Rogen, who stood on a black metal balcony on the second floor o the white brick industrial building. I couldn’t hear them but I could see the laughs. I could also see Seth startle, stand straight up, and point as the four ninjas swooped out of the shadows and snatched poor Jonah. Read on…

Garment District

Apr 8, 2009 in Photos

LA has a major clothing industry (à la American Apparel) and everyone here dresses snappy-like, so I probably should’ve been to the Garment District1 more than two times since I came out here. There was that one time during college, when I think I expected to get some actual everyday clothes there and was, instead, baffled by the cheap t-shirts and couture. I also went on Saturday, to meet my extremely talented friend and walk around and shoot for a few hours. Because, you know, photography’s like everything else; the more you do it, the better you are at it. Read on…

L8s Ang3les at the Annenberg Space for Photography

Apr 1, 2009 in Photos, Reviews

Inspired by my friend Jasmine, I zipped up to Century City to see the L8s Ang3les show at the brand-new Annenberg Space for Photography. L8s Ang3les is a show featuring 11 local photographers, especially some from the LA times; the Annenberg Space is a brand-new gallery trying to bring some culture to the antiseptic, wealth-filled skyscraper-land that is Century City. Read on…