Nick Campbell and his thoughts that prove too long or too personal to go on Twitter. FED, contributor to TV.com, watcher of much, eater of more. Clinically verbose.
Dear Los Angeles fans of Hank Green and/or WheezyWaiter,
In the video above, @edwardspoonhands talks about how their show at the Regent in DTLA is struggling to sell-out. If I wasn’t out of town, I’d certainly buy a ticket. In fact, Craig’s recent video where he suggested he might try to organize runs in tour date cities makes me wish I could change my flights. Stupid best friends and their stupid weddings.
Anyway, buy a ticket and go to the show. It’s definitely not the worst thing you can do on Tuesday night (given that it’s Tuesday night, it might be one of the best things). And you get to explore DTLA when it’s at it’s best: not on a weekend.
Need some tips on places to go when you’re in the neighborhood? I actually organized such a list a month or so ago for places to eat and drink in the area. It’s a pretty solid list of my favorite neighborhood haunts. My taste is impeccable.
DTLA Old Bank District Eating Suggestions: http://sononick.tumblr.com/post/142041006867/dtla-obd-eating-suggestions
And those are just the places that are within a 5-10 minute walk from the venue! There’s also:
Birdie’s, a fried chicken and donut place on Olympic.
EightyTwo, a magical barcade in Arts District.
Otium, a fancy delicious place up by the Walt Disney Concert Hall (that Concert Hall is worth a look, too)
Chego! and Howlin’ Ray’s up in Chinatown (I live for Chego’s Chubby Pork Belly Bowl)
The Golden Gopher, one of the oldest bars in LA (with the oldest, grandfathered-in liquor license).
Sushi Gen and Daikokuya in Little Tokyo (you’ll know them by the long lines of people standing outside waiting for their turn at sushi or ramen respectively)
Pie Hole in Arts District (get one savory and one sweet, because you’re worth it).
The rooftops at Perch or The Standard (the best time to do that is during the week when there are fewer people partying in downtown)
There’s a lot to do! I’m just saying! Go to the show! Have a good time! Enjoy my neighborhood while I’m away. It’s pretty great!
We really couldn’t wait to talk about Cinnamon Toast Crunch so here we are, week 2, digging right into one of those cereals that belongs in the Pantheon of the Breakfast Aisle. Let us know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. Topics this week include:
Episode 1 of the Super Cereal Podcast is ready for you to hear! It’s the first one! Mostly!* Check it out as we (Paul and Nick) talk about the history of the boring old flake and why it’s responsible for everything you hold dear in the grain-product-covered-in-cold-milk game. Well, we talk about it for a little bit. And then we talk about cows and mole people and Paul’s irrational disgust for the obviously fake factory workers at Honey Bunches of Oats (on account of the mole people).
* We also did an Episode 0 just to introduce ourselves. You should listen to that, too.
So one of my favorite YouTubers, @wheezytumblr, will be in my neighborhood performing at a show with another one of my favorite YouTubers, @edwardspoonhands, less than a block from where I live (they’ll be at The Regent on May 25th). The confluence of people I respect coming to my town and so close to where my dog poops is surely a rare sign that the universe conspires to give you the things for which you hope. The universe, however, isn’t without a sense of humor because I will also be in New Orleans for a wedding that week.
When people come to visit, I am big on showing them all the places they can eat. Now, I don’t hold any illusions that me and Craig and Hank would be sharing cupcakes at Big Man Bakes or that they would hear me if I shouted my restaurant suggestions over the din of the crowd but I feel obligated to tell visitors where they can stuff their face because LA is a food city and downtown is a food city inside of a food city and, if we’re trading in food, the Old Bank District would be one of the richest sectors of the food city inside of a food city. There’s a lot of good stuff to eat.
So, Craig and Hank, here are my suggestions for places to eat when you’re in my neighborhood when I’m not here. Other people who are visiting might find this useful, too, I guess.
Note: I’m only including places that are a 5-10 minute walk from The Regent. I’m leaving out all the great places in Little Tokyo, Chinatown, South Park, the Financial District, Bunker Hill, the Arts District, and frankly most of the Historic Core. I’m also leaving out breakfast/brunch places which breaks my heart because I love Semi Sweet breakfast sandwiches so much.
Also: you should check out Last Bookstore when you’re here, too. They don’t have food but it’s a really pretty bookstore.
Places to Go for First Timers
Sometimes it’s your first time.
Cole’s: Contentiously the originator of the French dip. Uncontentiously delicious. Get the: Beef and Swiss Little Dipper, Lamb Little Dipper.
Big Man Bakes: The owner of this establishment is very tall and they make very good cupcakes. Get the: Oreo Cupcake, Black and White Cupcake, Carrot Cupcake
Bäco Mercat: Food is great, always busy, part of the Josef Centeno empire. Get the: (menu is seasonal but you can’t go wrong with any Baco sandwich or any vegetable)
My Favorites
Bar Áma: Great menu, well-made cocktails, bar seats are awesome, their happy hour is “Super Nacho Hour.” I’m just saying. Yeah, it’s also another Josef Centeno place. Get the: Nachos, Guacamole, any vegetable, Puffy Tacos (off-menu)
Guisados: You can’t go wrong with any of these tacos. They also do breakfast tacos. Get the: Chorizo, Mole, Camarones, Armando Palmero (Arnold Palmer).
Gelateria Uli: the best dessert in the Historic Core, the best gelato in LA. Get the: Speculoos, Mint Stracciatella, whatever their weirdest flavor is.
Close Second
Places that are also good.
KazuNori: Good, quick sushi handrolls if you hit it at the right time. Otherwise, the line is out the door. No host (you just wait for a seat to open up). Get the: 4-Rolls
Badmaash: “Street” Indian food. Good spins on traditional dishes. The smell alone will convince you. Get the: Chicken Tikka Poutine, samosas.
Ledlow: Yeah, this is yet another Josef Centeno place (and, yes, they’re all right next door to each other basically). Best for breakfast but also has a pretty decent happy hour. Get the: burger, vegetables.
I ♥️ LA
Get in on those LA trends.
Ohana Poké Co: DTLA has gone poke-crazy. This is one of three places to open within a mile (not including the build-your-own-poke bar at Whole Foods). If you’re into sushi bowls with tasty sauces and crunchy stuff then this is the place (it’s really good to be honest). Get the: Unagi, Tuna.
Juice Crafters: There are actually about five different juice places within walking distance of The Regent but this is my favorite place to get a cold-pressed juice. Get the: #10 (Pineapple, Apple, Mint, Lemon).
Little Easy: New Orleans is kind of having a moment in downtown (thanks mostly to the amazing Little Jewel in Chinatown). Keep going all the way back and sit in a large, cool cement room that feels like outside in New Orleans (complete with fountain). NOLA-style bar food. Can be a bit loud.
I Love It When the Coffee’s Done
I’m mostly putting this in here just to have an “I Love It When the Coffee’s Done” category. Demitasse is another good option that’s a little out of the walking range for this but has a great drinking chocolate.
G&B: A DTLA branch of a coffee shop opened by Charles Babinski, currently second in the world according to the World Barista Championship rankings. So they have good coffee. Bonus of being in Grand Central Market.
Spring for Coffee: Tiny, tiny spot on Spring Street usually brewing Stumptown (Portland, OR) but I’ve also seen Ritual Coffee (San Francisco) and Heart Coffee Roasters (Portland, OR).
Elabrew Coffee: Brews Ritual Roasters (San Francisco), Kuma Roasters (Seattle), and Ceremony Roasters (Annapolis, MD). Also has Donut Snob donuts. Great workstation desks for people that go there to work on things like, I don’t know, editing videos.
Grand Central Market
This is a little further to walk but is worth the trip if you’re here before 6PM. I’m choosing three but you really can’t go wrong with anything (Wexler’s Pastrami, BelCampo’s burger, Valerie’s Cold Fried Chicken Sandwich, DTLA Cheese’s Ham and Cheese, Sticky Rice’s Vegetable Green Curry, etc etc)
eggslut: Greasy, awesome egg sandwiches. Perfect hangover breakfast. Get the: Fairfax. Don’t get the: eggslut (it’s fine -- there’re just better things to eat)
MadCapra: Falafel wraps. Really interesting flavors. Jonathan Gold approved. Get the: Orange or Red “sandwich”
Tacos Tumbras a Tomas: You may think you’ve had a burrito before but you have not. Get the: Carnitas burrito
Get Drunk
I don’t drink so I don’t have suggestions for booze but I do really like these bars.
The Love Song: Always spinning records, nice bar staff, bar snacks from the pizza place next door, and it’s IN the Regent.
The Escondite: Dive-y, locals-only kind of place because tourists usually (a) can’t find it and (b) are scared off by its surroundings if they do. Good bar food. Chicago sports aligned.
The Varnish: Speakeasy in the back of Cole’s. There is no sign for The Varnish, just a door at the back of the restaurant with a martini glass on it. Christina Hendricks and John Slattery used to go there. Has to be cool if Mad People go, right?
Fancy af
Oh, it’s like that, huh?
Orsa & Winston: another Josef Centeno joint. Lots of small plates that are more about the tasting experience than filling you up. But, then again, you’ll want to order as many courses as they offer because everything is SO GOOD. Get the: 8-Course
Sushi Zo: This is omakase sushi. You take what the chef gives you. Luckily, you’re in good hands. Get the: seriously, it’s whatever the chef deigns to give you. There are no other options.
Redbird: Fancier than it is good. The space is great, though. It’s built into the rectory of the old St Vibiana church (read the history of that) and has a retractable roof. Get the: bread and cocktails. Everything else is only fine. This place is probably best for drinks and a snack.
Other Places
In case everything else fails.
The Must: Wine bar with very mediocre food.
Blossom: Very non-Vietnamese-friendly Vietnamese food. Get the: pho, chicken curry, #21.
Peddler’s Creamery: Great for the novelty of bicycle-churned ice cream. There are just better places for frozen dessert (see Uli’s).
When your boss goes on and on about the time she was kidnapped then the time she was auctioned off and then the time when she ran the country and also the time she ditched everyone and lived on a secret island with the future head of the NSA
Mother Teresa is going to be declared a saint... and she shouldn’t be
I’m not shocked but honestly I’m so disappointed. I’m a girl who grew up in Kolkata, someone who grew up hearing about Mother Teresa and to be honest I hate the fact that the liberal, white, Western media has held this woman as some sort of paragon of virtue. And she really wasn’t. Here are some things she did:
She was so anti-abortion that she actually used her Nobel Peace Prize speech to rail against population control, family planning and abortion.
She supported Indira Gandhi’s declaration on the state of emergency in 1975, saying “People are happier. There are more jobs. There are no strikes.”
She idolised poverty and suffering, stating that she thought it was beautiful that the poor had accepted their lot in life. But when it came to her, she would check herself into expensive clinics, in the West, in order to treat her own illnesses.
She was also associated with and supported corrupt businessmen such as Charles Keating and Robert Maxwell, as well as the dictatorial Duvalier family and Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.
She encouraged members of her order to secretly baptise dying patients with no regard for their own faiths.
Her public image was super misleading because only a few hundred people are served by even the largest of the homes. In 1998, among the 200 charitable assistance organisations reported to operate in Calcutta, hers wasn’t even ranked among the largest organisations- there were others doing a much better job.
In 1991, a journalist visited the home and described the medical care the patients received as “haphazard” and he observed that sisters, who had no medical knowledge, had to make decisions about patient care, because of the lack of doctors there.
Her order did not distinguish between curable or incurable patients, so that people who could otherwise survive would be at risk of dying from infections and lack of treatment. She herself described her houses as the Houses of the Dying.
She reinforced the popular colonialist image of the white woman giving up her life to save the souls of the “wretched” brown people.
There are more shady things about her but I’m over this beatification of Mother Teresa. I’m over her, and I’m over this constant fawning. Kolkata isn’t the “city where Mother Teresa lived”. It has it’s own identity and Mother Teresa doesn’t, at least in my opinion, deserve this honour that the Catholic Church is bestowing on her.
While all of these things about Mother Theresa might taint her legacy according to a modern secular understanding of what virtuousness should be, they don’t necessarily negate the Roman Catholic criteria for sainthood.
Remember the institution that is bestowing her with sainthood and its definition of virtuous. Think of all the saints that have probably had their flaws and hypocrisies erased from history. If you are a person of faith, look to the miracles that have been performed at her intercession since those are the difference between the woman on Earth and the saint in the everlasting.
And if you aren’t a person of faith, well, I guess it wouldn’t really matter in the first place?
my brain: YES but first, what is the plot of the Maltese Falcon?
*20 minutes of internet wormhole*
me: …whoops. Okay. Now to WORK!
brain: get some chocolate out of the fridge. also I’m sleepy. make some coffee. with almond milk this time, you might need to go get some. Also take a vitamin.
me: Are you just stalling?
brain: these are necessary substances to create the optimal mental environment so you can focus entirely on the task at hand.
*appeases brains whims*
me: Now. I’m begging you. To WORK!
brain: LOL real quick I just need to replay this traumatizing awkward middle school memory.
Amazon.com Universal Wishlist for Marianna Tabares.
My school doesn’t have a library so I am starting a mobile one. I have my students doing silent reading and it’s off to a decent start. Some of my kids have specifically requested these titles. Others, I throw in because I want them to read more writers of color. If you can help, please do! I’m even getting those old school library check out cards to keep track of my inventory. smile emoticon
Hey pals, @writinginbedagain is putting together a mobile library for her high school students and has put together a wish list to help make it happen. I know her and I know how hard she works to help kids get what they need in school. If you would like to help there are a few ways you can.
1. You can buy something for the kids
2. You can share this
3. You can suggest some books that can be added to the list. Fun stuff. Sci-Fi, Fantasy preferably by women and POC but any good books will do.
Thank you! I want my kids to see that there is a lot out there for them. Major shout out to Corrie Greathouse for helping out with so many great new books this morning!
Not gonna lie, I’m getting really teary-eyed over the fact that I can barely keep up with your gifts. I just added more great books. My student population is Latino and Black and without a library, it’s challenging to offer them really good literary options that they can sink their teeth into.
Please let me know if there are some additional titles that you think they will NEED, that their souls need to read. I want them to get a glimpse of life outside of our little neighborhood’s bubble. I’ve been pushing silent reading extra hard this semester and after two weeks, I’m almost at 100% with kids who bring a book to class.
They don’t go to the library because it’s a dangerous neighborhood and they aren’t always able to go with their parents. So this, THIS is a really huge deal for me and for them.
Thank you so much for everything. Seriously, THANK YOU.
I’ve never read beyond page 150 of Ulysses. Currently, it’s being used as one of those floating book shelves in our house. In my closet. I isolate it to exert my power. It returns the favor by reminding me of my inadequacy every day.
Maybe that person just meant that whatever you were talking about adheres to the basic tenets of Ludacris. What would that thing be doing in the Georgia Dome on the 50 yard line? Perhaps its fa-fa-fa-fant-ta-tasy? Or maybe it’s prone to go to the club and throw some bows?
I have a tendency to be hyper-competitive. Not in an abrasive or even an external way. I just make games out of everything and push myself to limits I think I should be achieving based on my own ego and the accomplishments of others. Sometimes it’s worthwhile. Sometimes it’s unhealthy.
A friend of mine ran over 1200 miles last year which is incredible. He also ran three marathons and a sundry of other races. I’ve watched him develop from someone that was barely keeping up with us on our lunch time runs into someone that’s, for lack of a better term, crushing it. And I’m honesty happy for him. He looks fit, he hitting his goals, and he’s super proud of his 2015 in running. And he should be. Because it’s awesome.
But there’s a tiny, nagging voice in my head that’s like, “So. What’d you do last year?” Runkeeper tells me I did 695.9 run miles last year. Which is not nearly 1200. It’s not even the 1008mi goal of another internet running friend of mine. So I got slightly dumpy about that.
Telling Gillian, her immediate answer was, “Well, what’d you do the year before?” I looked at her quizzically. “Because you don’t necessarily have to be competing against your friends all the time. Sometimes, you can just be competing against yourself.” Using my own explanation for why I like to run against me. How dare.
So I looked it up (I really should be paying for Runkeeper Elite/Go by now but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). And here’s where we’re at:
2015: 695.9
2014: 469.6
2013: 400.5
2012: 178.2
2011: 266.6
2010 (Aug-Dec): 80.6
Steadily increasing every year! A 48% increase over last year! So I’m doing pretty okay! I’m planning to hit 1000mi this year but, as long as I stick to my plan of doing two regular runs during the week (I usually run about 6mi every time I run) and a long run on the weekends, I should be able to hit that no problem.
Sometimes you get so lost in all the exceptional people you have access to with the internet that you forget how well you’re doing.
This commercial for Charmin Ultra-Strong has horrifying implications.
The fact that there is a security checkpoint for the bear airport (or should I say, bearport) implies that there are certain bears who have malicious intent to blow up the bearplanes. There are bearrorists in this universe that aspire to destroy things that these ass-wiping mammals hold near and dear.
Hang on, the operating theory behind this is that there’s no poop left on that bear’s butt because All-Powerful Charmin™ wiped it away. And you know that poop is clean gone because the Security Bear’s wand doesn’t detect it.
Which means that wand isn’t searching for explosives.
