Andre on Andre on Main St

Stella on bike

Stella on Main

Stella Dottir.

How much is that doggy on the window?

Wonton, chill'n.

I checked out the new neighborhood art supply store, Raw Materials on Main St. the other day. Their prices are much cheaper than you would assume from a small business. Go check them out.

Joe's Guns

On the patio of Old Bank DVD.

Downtown Denizens

I often see this dude jogging around the neighborhood.





I often see her walking around with this sign.

Loki of Main St

This is Stella Dottir's pleasant one year old cat Loki. He lives in her clothing store on Main St. I always stop by and pet him if I see him hanging out outside.




She keeps a close eye on him and he is not allowed to go any further than Blossom's (the Vietnamese Restaurant next door) porch as shown above.

Banquette Cafe Owners Open Up A Restaurant

The Nickel.

To open up sometime in March on Main St, a little south of 5th St. They plan on serving "really good diner food". I can't wait.


Pictured Above: Monica May (owner of Banquette Cafe), Kristen (sitting on Monica's lap), and photographer Fridgeir Helgason at the new location.

Chef in a Tux

On Main St.

Interactive Urban Environment: Sharing Your Music with the Neighborhood

I have been seeing more and more people walking around with radios and stereos on their shoulder playing music. I wonder what the cultural origins of this is.

What I've Been Eating Recently XI

I was hanging out on the porch of Banquette with Ed and Pamela the other day (a different day from the day we were talking about where Barack should eat if/when he comes to town), and I noticed the guy next to us was eating something that smelled really good.:



We started chatting about what he was eating and he said that it was amazing and that he was enjoying it very much.

So Ed ordered one and we split it. He photographed it. And I photographed him photographing it.




Those are his cigarettes and camera. Characteristic items of The Old Vato On the Porch on Main St.



It was a mixture of mushrooms and cheese (forgot the kind of cheese) encased in bread. It was extremely good and I haven't seen them carry it ever since! -Monica May if you are reading this..... pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase please start carrying them again. They are much loved by your customers!


And here is Diana, the creator of the wonderful thing we just ate, taking a cigarette break:

Ed's Digital Mural!!!

Yesterday I got a sneak peak of Ed Fuentes' digital mural (I am a co-sponsor) that will be going up above the Regent Theater.

Its beautiful.

It will be going up soon. Possibly by this month's art walk. We'll see.

This is exciting.

Errands

I had to do a few errands around downtown the other day, (i)go to a Japanese market in Little Tokyo to get some dried seaweed and (ii) go to Grand Central Market to get some nopales and plantains.

As I was walking to Little Tokyo from the Historic Core, I made the decision to get a bike. I have safety concerns about riding a bike in LA, but fuck it I'll just ride on the sidewalk. It would have saved me a considerable amount of travel time. I didn't want to take my scooter because I didn't want to schlep it around inside the stores, and the chain that I use to chain it to bike posts was accidently left at work.

I don't have a place to put it in my place (yet). I wish we had more bike racks in my neighborhood. -Heck, all over the city for that matter.

Anyway, so I was walking up Main St on my way to the office depot in Little Tokyo. I passed by this man standing by a phone booth. He asked me if I can take a picture of him with City Hall in the background. He looks as though he may have been standing there for a while looking for somebody to take a picture of him. I told him I will do it only if he would let me take a picture of him.

So he let me take a picture of him:



I have been wanting to take pictures of people I see in the streets for YEARS. I just never had the audacity to just do it without asking, or to ask them and then do it. Its just so awkward. At most I have just been taking pictures of people's feet and legs in the subway:






Or the backs of unsuspecting people from the back of the bus:




Or their refection (in addition to the backs of their heads):




Or unsuspecting people waiting for the subway:




Or photos of people I intentionally take while I am pretending to fiddle with my camera:




But for now on, whenever somebody asks me for something when I am out and about, whether it be for change, directions, the time, etc. They will have to let me take a picture of them otherwise they get jack shit from me.

On my way to that Japanese market in that pedestrian walk way between 1st and 2nd street, I came across a musician named Greg Walsh playing the shamisen



He had a gathering of women over the age of 70 around him sort of dancing their upper torso while sitting and he was just simply awesome. I bought his CD for a reasonable $5.

On my way back to the historic core I saw some guy on 3rd St riding a rather unusual bike:



It looks uncomfortable. I would have asked if I could try it if I wasn't wearing a skirt. That is simply the worse way to travel on wheels if you are wearing a skirt.

I ran into Ricky The Pirate and he let me take several photos of him. I'll do a post later of all the pictures that I took. I think he is quite photogenic.



I then went to grand central market to buy some nopales and plantains.





Then I went home to make cooked plantains, nopales with tomato and wild mushrooms.

A future post will be on how to make this favorite nopales dish of mine.

What I've Been Eating Recently VII

Cesar Salad at Banquette Cafe.




The Significant Other ate a sandwich of some sort.

New York Taxis in Los Angeles

Taxis for CSI: NY

Bouquette a Banquette V

I like to document the bouquets at Banquette Cafe because they are transient, and simply the most gorgeous bouquets I have ever seen ever.







I ate there for breakfast the other day and I saw Banquette Cafe owner Monica May arranging flowers right outside. I didn't know that she has been arranging them all along!

The Canadian

The view outside of Valerie's window.
Thursday night, November Art Walk.

What I've Been Eating Recently III

Pho!And coconut juice straight out of a coconut!

At Blossom on Main St. and Winston.

The Barclay

I passed by this empty space facing Main St. at The Barclay on the corner of Main St. and 4th.



Anybody know what is going to become of it?

Some of the things I do when I am not working...

Hanging out with Ed and Don the other day on the porch of Pete's Cafe.