A few weeks ago, when my daughter was down visiting, she asked me one cold and dreary afternoon if we could go for High Tea. I thought that would be a grand idea, and the trusty internet lead us on an adventure for the afternoon! Take a look and see what happened…

see you on the freeway

Related posts:

1. The Agony of de-feet…Pershing Square Ice Skating- we had fun!
2. Dinner with David at Pho 999 in Van Nuys
3. Do you know your neighbor?

A red flag warning to indicate a high risk of wildfire was issued by the National Weather Service.

Th red flag warning will be in effect in Los Angeles and Ventura counties from noon Monday until 6 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. The warning goes into effect at 11 a.m. Monday and expire at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Clarita and other wind-prone areas can expect 60 mph wind gusts and “fire weather” in Tuesday’s predawn hours, the Weather Service predicted. The Weather Service also predicts wins speeds in excess of 50 miles per hour for Inland valleys.

The winds are forecasted to also strike the mountains near Malibu and north and northeast of Los Angeles. The San Diego, California forecast office said most areas south of Los Angeles can expect wind gusts of 35 mph. San Diego and Riverside counties are predictated to see gusts of 70 mph in wind-prone areas on New Year’s Day.

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Looking for work? The Home Depot Center is holding a job fair rain or shine on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7, 2009. The application process will take 1 – 2 hours. Need employment in Los Angeles? Find Los Angeles Jobs. Looking for Work in San Diego? Browse San Diego Jobs.

Home Depot Center Job Fair
Located in the Main Plaza of The Home Depot Center soccer stadium.
(Please enter the facility thru Gate A off of Avalon Blvd.)
Feb. 6, 1 p.m.-6 p.m.; Feb. 7, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
(Times subject to change.)
Questions? Please call 310-630-2000

Available Part Time positions include:

• Guest Service Representatives/Ticket Takers
• Box Office Ticket Sellers
• Security Officers
• Concessions Cashiers/Supervisors
• Restaurant positions (Bartenders, Servers, Cooks)
• Retail Sales Associates

The Home Depot Center soccer stadium
18400 Avalon Blvd
Carson, CA 90746
www.homedepotcenter.com

Home Depot Center is home to the MLS Cup Champion Los Angeles Galaxy. The Home Depot Center is 125 acre complex featuring a 27,000-seat soccer stadium, 8,000-seat tennis stadium, 10,000-seat track & field facility and a 2,450-seat indoor velodrome.

Courtesy: Los Angeles Jobs

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Salma Hayek and Vanessa Williams joined the opening celebration of the Sergio Rossi boutique on Melrose Place. The Italian luxury shoes and accessories brand, Sergio Rossi opened its 1,500 sq. ft. store with a dinner at Bastide co-hosted by Sergio Rossi Creative Director Edmundo Castillo and Salma Hayek on January 16, 2008.

Other guests included Mia Maestro, Ana Ortiz, Giannina Facio, Eva Chow, celebrity florist Eric Buterbaugh, and celebrity stylists Elizabeth Stewart and Rachel Zoe. Teri Weinberg of NBC and writer Marc Abrams were also in attendance.

Sergio Rossi at 8424 Melrose Place, West Hollywood. (323) 944-0864. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

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I have to say that since I moved to the L.A. area in 2000, Burbank Airport, a.k.a. Bob Hope Airport (BUR), has been my hub of choice. I beg friends to choose that as their arrival point and leave from there whenever I can.

My daughter lives with her dad up in the Bay Area and visits me once a month, so I consider myself a sort of “airport connoisseur” as I am there picking her up or dropping her off 25 or more times a year. Of course, I have never seen this perspective of the field, as I am driving there, but what I love about Burbank Airport is how easy it is to get in and out, especially compared to the nightmare that is LAX.

photo courtesy of PilotAge.com

The cops in front of the terminal are kind of grouchy and they don’t have a lot of patience with the pick-up scene, so my daughter and I have worked out a little system that I will share with you, because it’s been working for us. I probably should keep my mouth shut.

A side note: Here are some photos and the mission statement from the Burbank Airport Police website (!)

Their stated mission is: “…to provide a courageous, professional and courteous law enforcement response…”. OK, I get the professional and courageous part, but the courteous, well, maybe not so much. But then again, I guess standing outside in the heat and cold, telling people to move on is not that much fun.

Back to my smooth sailing technique: Right across the street from the terminal’s South entrance on Empire Ave. is the Amtrak Station. They have a small pull-in parking area there and that’s where I sit in my car and wait for my daughter’s (usually delayed) plane to land. Once her plane touches terra firma, she calls me from her cell and I swing my car into the terminal. On weekends (when she usually flies), there is often a terrible wait to even pull up to the terminal, so even though she’s on a Southwest Air flight, I have her walk beyond that first terminal, where all the crowds hang out, south to the end of the airport and wait for me there. I can usually just glide in, toss her bags in the trunk and screech out before any of the world’s grumpiest police officers can blink an eye!

Let me know (in the comment area) if you have any better tricks!

Just as an FYI, here are the airlines that currently are flying out of BUR: Alaska, American, America West, Delta, Jet Blue, Southwest and United.

If you are going out of town for a while, the long-term parking is pretty reasonable. The cheapest parking lot is across the street on Thornton and the bus ride is about three minutes. Don’t you just love it! Here is a handy parking rates chart.

burbank-parking-rates.pdf

ok, gotta run,

see you on the freeway!

jessica

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You can reserve your Greyhound bus seat for an additional $5 per ticket

Reserved seating is sold one way and in select cities on specific schedules. The reserved seat upgrade must be purchased in person at the departure terminal, even if you bought your ticket online. Priority seating may be reserved from 30 days in advance to 45 minutes prior to departure, but you must be present at the gate no fewer than 20 minutes before departure.

GreyHound Bus Tickets amy be purchased at the follwoing location in Los Angeles:

Greyhound Bus Lines Hollywood
1715 N Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 466-6384

Priority seating initiative is available across the United States on the following routes:

Atlanta-Orlando; Atlanta-Charlotte; Atlanta-Savannah; Atlanta-Tallahassee; Baltimore-New York; Boston-New York; Charlotte-Richmond; Chicago-Memphis; Chicago-Milwaukee; Chicago-Minneapolis; Cincinnati, all schedules; Cleveland, all schedules; Dallas-Houston; Dallas-San Antonio; Detroit-all schedules; Houston-Dallas; Jacksonville-Charlotte; Jacksonville-Tallahassee; Las Vegas-Los Angeles; Las Vegas-Phoenix; Los Angeles-Las Vegas; Los Angeles-Phoenix; Los Angeles-Sacramento; Los Angeles-San Francisco; Minneapolis-Chicago; New York-Baltimore; New York-Boston; New York-Philadelphia; New York-Washington; Omaha-Chicago; Orlando-Atlanta; Philadelphia-New York; Phoenix-Las Vegas; Phoenix-San Diego; Richmond-Dallas; Sacramento-Los Angeles; San Antonio-Dallas; San Francisco-Los Angeles; San Francisco-Sacramento; Savannah-Atlanta; Seattle-Portland; Seattle-Spokane; Seattle-Vancouver; Tallahassee-Atlanta; Tallahassee-Jacksonville; Tallahassee-Montgomery; Tampa, all schedules; and Washington-New York.

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In the last few days news has broken out about the Westland group which is located in Chino. California providing some bad beef to the Los Angeles Unified School District(LAUSD). About 37 million pounds of beef have been recalled that had gone to the school lunch programs. There are 150 school districts across the nation that have stopped using the ground beef from the processing plant Hallmark Meat Co. which is associated with Westland distrubters.

The issue at large about the beef that the processing company Hallmark Meat Co. and their distrubuter Westland had provided was that many of the cows were downed cattle. The downed cattle pose health risks or pose a higher risk of contamination of E. Coli, Salmonella or mad cow disease. The downed cows wallow in feces and their immune systems are low and or weak, hence picking up such diseases.

The USDA is investigating into the issue along with Senator Diane Feinstein of California. The USDA has suspended the operations of Westland and Hallmark until the federals have completed a full investigation. Jack In The Box, the fast food chain is also affected by the downed cows and has stopped taking orders from the companies.

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Many of us in L.A. have never stopped for a minute to make human contact with our neighbors. I’m not even talking about the kind of neighbor that lives in the house next door to you (although it’s pretty pathetic that we don’t even know them, either!), I’m talking about the homeless guy that you see every day and try and ignore.

When was the last time you stopped and realized that there was a real person there?

A few weeks ago, I finally decided to stop someone that I have seen all the time for the last six years, but didn’t even know his name. Take a look and see what I found out…

see you on the freeway

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I love anything retro, and many things silly, if they are well done. So the other night, when Anne, my adventure buddy, told me about Charles Phoenix’s Retro Holiday Slideshow from the 50′s and 60′s, I was so excited! Especially since I had never been to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, certainly a cinematic landmark in our Mecca of film.

A little back story before the film portion of this post: Charles Phoenix grew up in the L.A. area and always had a love for things kitsch-y. One day, several years back, he was rooting around in a thrift shop when he came across a small blue box of slides marked “our trip across country 1957″ and in that fateful moment, his life came into sharper focus (pun intended). What began as a casual collection (ok, an obsessed collection), soon turned into an passion shared with the world at large through these slide-show-cum-commentary presentations. Charles has been asked to present these glimpses into American history in the innocent years all around the U.S. and in Europe. I think it says on his website that he now has over 500,000 slides that he has collected from thrift shops, estate sales, flea markets and the like. His audience members often give him their family slides when they come to the show. They are amazing because of their momentary look into the living rooms and front yards of regular people, and I have to say my favorite of all was a slide of a home-fashioned styrofoam and tinfoil tree on a raft, listing to the left, in someone’s swimming pool.

Wikipedia has a great definition of kitsch (and here’s part of it):

Kitsch is a German term that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style. The term is also used more loosely in referring to any art that is pretentious or in bad taste, and also commercially produced items that are considered trite or crass.

Because the word was brought into use as a response to a large amount of art in the 19th century where the aesthetic of art work was confused with a sense of exaggerated sentimentality or , kitsch is most closely associated with art that is sentimental; however, it can be used to refer to any type of art that is deficient for similar reasons—whether it tries to appear sentimental, glamorous, theatrical, or creative, kitsch is said to be a gesture imitative of the superficial appearances of art. It is often said that kitsch relies on merely repeating convention and formula, lacking the sense of creativity and originality displayed in genuine art.

Though kitsch and kitschy may be terms used to criticize, the term is sometimes used as a compliment as well, with some finding kitschy artwork to be enjoyable for its “retro” value or unintentional, ironic humor or garishness. [my emphasis]

Well, Charles’ performance piece (those words don’t do it justice, I promise!) was certainly ‘enjoyable for it’s retro value and ironic humor’, no doubt, but it really was also surprisingly touching and screamingly funny (I laughed so hard that tears were pouring down my face) and smart at the same time. Charles is a true chronicler of what he calls ‘Americana’: the cultural mores of the American 1950′s and 1960′s. In fact, he has a book by that name: God Bless Americana.

If you’re a fan of retro (which I am!!!!), check out his great website CharlesPhoenix.com and don’t forget to sign up for his “Slide of the Week“, where he sends out one of his retro postcards (plus commentary) every week via email.

Also, Charles will be presenting his slide show several more times during December at the Egyptian, it’s well worth the trip to Hollywood!

Charles Phoenix Retro Holiday Slideshow

Here are a couple of video treats for you! Charles showing us how to make the famous ‘Astro Weenie Christmas Tree’—wow!

I’m sorry, I am experiencing technical difficulties, so please come see the video in my ‘Christmas Hacks’ post on my other blog, It’s Not About Your Stuff. (photo courtesy of sheer incompetence)

And here, dear new readers, is the first ever of my fabulous hand-crafted cellphone videos! This one is called

A night in Hollywood

(still in the working stages. You have to have the free and friendly Quicktime Player installed on your computer, and I didn’t realize that if I held the camera sideways, I wouldn’t be able to flip it like a photo, so forgive me!)

No related posts.

Hey, gang, I just put my 15 year old on the plane in Burbank this afternoon and *whew!*, life resumes it’s normal pace again and I can (finally) get back to blogging.

Meanwhile, over the last few weeks, I have been busy taking some great cellflix that I will be sharing with you over the next few days.

Right now, though, I want to give you something to “chew” in (no pun intended), a short (and growing!) list of cool websites that give you the scoop on what you need to know in Los Angeles. Please feel free to add to this list in the comments section.

1. Apartment Therapy L.A. everything you need to know about decorating your space, great stores, great suggestions, great finds, all in the LA style. I never knew I cared so much, but I am an addict now!

2. BargainsLA.comas they call themselves: The Premiere Bargain Hunting, Bargain Shopping & Sample Sales Guide to the Los Angeles Area!

I found this site through Apartment Therapy LA. You can sign up for Suzanne’s bargain tips on everything from bargain shopping for furniture, electronics, pet supplies and more! This is a treasure trove of information for the bargain hunter.

3. Daily Candy LA wanna know what’s hip, what’s happening, what’s hot? Sign up for this daily tip and you will be THERE! (along with the 150K+ others who are on the list). Whether you are a service, have a product or a storefront, one small mention in Daily Candy, and you are ‘in like Flynn’. (note the old Hollywood reference)

4. Chowhound’s LA message board leave the restaurant reviews to the reviewers and check out what the real people are saying about the chow in your neck of the woods.

5. Metroblogging Los Angeles- a sort of portal of a variety of L.A. bloggers. Most of them seem to be hip 20-somethings, but I met Heather from heathervescent last summer at the BlogHer conference in San Jose, drinking bright purple-rimmed ‘Yahootinis’ by the pool, so I feel a warmth for her blogging. Check it out, it’s an interesting look at what is happening from many different perspectives. ok, so maybe not so different, but in different voices for sure.

(hey, speaking of BlogHer, the blogging conference that had over 700 WOMEN in attendance last year, will be having it’s business version in NYC in March and yours truly is thinking of showing up. My dad will be out of town and so I would have his delightful 32nd floor apartment all to myself. yes.)

see you on the freeway

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