New Yorker Ads about L.A.

I was just flipping through my fresh-from-the-mailbox copy of The New Yorker Winter Fiction Issue before bed when I discovered a four-page ad for the "all-new Chrysler Town & Country" minivan.

On the first page, Bradley Whitford (of West Wing fame) and Jane Kaczmarek (of Malcolm in the Middle fame) pose in front of said van with their three young children playing in the background.



Okay, whatever. Nothing too remarkable. But let me read you the copy:

Come holiday time, prime-time celebs Bradley Whitford and Jane Kaczmarek and their three kids take their act on the road to visit family in Los Feliz and see the lights in Griffith Park. Fortunately, the all-new 2008 Chrysler Town & Country knows how to let the good times roll.

Is it just me, or does this seem like weird location-dropping... like name-dropping, you know? It never mentions Los Angeles, just Los Feliz and Griffith Park. Is this an attempt by L.A. locals to pretend like we have boroughs? Hell, I like Los Feliz as much as the next east-side hipster, but this feels wrong. And, man, that car was able to take them ALL the way from Los Feliz to Griffith Park? Amazing! Oh, wait... they're right next to each other.

Plus, you know no New Yorkers know how to properly mispronounce "Los Feliz."

I don't know why this was so unnerving to me, but it was. I was so perturbed, I decided to take more crappy photos of the thing with my iPhone. Here's proof:





Weird advertisements aside, there is some great fiction in this magazine. Junot Diaz has a fascinating short called "Alma" on page 52:



(See? Even more crappy iPhone photos of the magazine.)

Go read the story right now and you'll see what I mean.

iPhone Tour of Pico Boulevard

My iPhone got a free trip down the length of Pico Blvd. on Saturday. Since my legs were doing all the work, I thought it would only be fair to ask the phone to take a few pictures.

Here's some of the things we encountered along the way.

Lots of clothes in the fashion district:


Some mannequins who could use the aforementioned clothes:


These ladies need clothes AND heads:


These dudes are naked and need a tan! Hell, they're basically transparent:


I already knew this, but the iPhone was really impressed that our town has an area called the "Byzantine-Latino Quarter" and that they're so optimistic there:


I also showed my iPhone the amazing St. Sophia Cathedral, which we were fortunate enough to walk by during visiting hours:


Jesus was watching over us, most literally:


L.A. is a city of murals. Frida and her pet monkey said hello:


There was this awesome old jukebox shop:


It took us almost 6 miles before we saw our first Starbucks:

We all believed this to say a lot about demographics and city planning and stopped to reflect on the differences between East and West Los Angeles. Then we got frappuccinos.

Inspiring quotes to revive Pico:

Together we really CAN do it! (If by "do it" they mean "walk the entire length of Pico in one day." I don't think that's what they meant.)

For your reference, this is how a crane is supposed to look:


This is NOT how they're supposed to look:



Just before we stopped for delicious cupcakes, we were given this helpful list:


Thanks, shop on Pico! I WILL eat your food and save room for dessert! In fact, here's the before and after shots of said dessert.

Not everything was fun and games on Pico. This bird wasn't having the best day:

In fact, he might be having the worst day. (I apologize to my brother, who I'm sure is hurting for his feathered friend.)

We barely stopped to breathe during the last 3 miles, but in the end we were rewarded with a glowing Santa Monica:


I then jumped in a cab and let myself be driven home. My feet loved the cab driver, despite the fact that he was watching a Yanni DVD while driving. I then ate some Zankou Chicken, which was brilliant. I then took a shower, got dressed, put on makeup, and went out dancing with some friends (which involved a few gin and tonics), which was less than brilliant. Don't get me wrong—dancing was fun, but it's not the best plan after walking 15.6 miles. This is my sagely advice for the day: don't walk the entire length of Pico and then go out dancing. Take my words to heart, fair reader.

And that's the end of that chapter...

iPhone tour of Echo Park

Hello fans of Pico. K and N graciously invited me to contribute to their lovely blog, so here I am, trying to come up with something clever and witty to say...

I'm not doing so well. I prefer not to be awake this early, so my brain isn't quite functioning properly. I do much better between the hours of 10pm and 2am. Not to mention, I was at the WeHo Halloween carnival last night until about 1:30, so the exhaustion is acute. Quadruple-shot espresso acute.

Having attended the largest Halloween celebration in the world last night, I thought my first Pico blog post would be about all the fabulous costumes I encountered on Santa Monica Boulevard. Sadly, the photos demonstrating said costumes are locked away on my camera still, so instead I offer up an iPhone tour of Echo Park.

This is an iPhone tour of the park because I wasn't intending on taking a bunch of pictures. I was just walking around the lake for exercise, but the day was so beautiful that I just couldn't let it go unrecorded. The only camera at my disposal was the little one on the back of my new love, my soulmate, my iPhone.

So here are some sights from my corner of Los Angeles:



That's the Lady of the Lake. It's a WPA-commissioned piece of art by Ada Mae Sharpless, 1934.



I know they're not native to Southern California, but I'll be damned if looking at a row of palm trees doesn't make your brain scream "I'm in Los Angeles!"



Downtown behind Echo Park. During the summer, the foreground of this picture would be filled with lotus flowers.



More of the lake. I just think it's pretty, okay? And finally:



Birdies. They were sleepy and enjoying the sun. And thus concludes my impromptu tour of Echo Park.