There’s a popular game played here in Los Angeles that drives native residents crazy. The game is called “Everything Was Better Where I Came From” and it frequently involves food and an east coast city.*

Most transplants (myself included) have played this game and I’ll admit that it’s annoying. Well I’ve got good news, this game can work both ways, at least as far as my hometown is concerned.

My father told me that a Fatburger recently opened up in Massapequa Park, NY, which is about ten minutes from where I was grew up. This is the first one in the area so I made sure to tell him that Fatburger was way better than any stupid Long Island burger joint and he should go there immediately. He told me I had no idea what I was talking about (but not exactly in those words).

Now when I go home to see my family I can take them to Fatburger and while we’re there I can talk about how awesome the food is in Los Angeles. When they ask: “If you love LA so much, why don’t you go back there?” I can assure them that I will do just that.

*As Militant Angeleno will tell you, the idea that the your hometown is a culinary wonderland is pure nostalgic bullshit.

It’s been a few months in the waiting but “The Urban Homestead” written by Echo Parkians Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is finally out and available and I had to give it a shout because it’s an awesome and informative resource and because Erik’s a friend of mine, but also because the day after I ordered one up I found a hand-delivered package on our doorstep Thursday. Inside was not only my autographed copy of the book, but a bonus bottle of their homebrewed beer as well as a basket of eggs fresh from their own backyard chickens, each one a different color — the eggs, I mean (and perhaps the chickens, too).

I’m not saying that if you order your own copy of the book it’ll arrive similarly augmented with some of the products of their self-sufficiency, but you won’t know if you don’t buy! Available for purchase directly from their excellent Homegrown Evolution blog, at Amazon and booksellers everywhere, including Skylight Books in Los Feliz Village.

P.S. Kelly and Eric were featured in this article on “guerilla gardening” in Thursday’s L.A. Times.

The hawk family has returned.  We spotted the female hiding in a few trees a couple of weeks ago.  At 7:04AM this morning Mr Hawk arrived and started his screeching as he sat atop a power pole next door.

What remains to be discovered is where the pair have built their nest to raise their young.  With luck we’ll find out soon.  Can’t wait as usually around July 4 the babes have lost their pin feathers and are beginning to fly. And hunt.

Pic by me, it does get bigger with a click.

So, over at Los Angeles Magazine’s website, they’re down to their final 4 contenders for the best thing in LA.

Wait for it.

Your choices are…

Amoeba Records.

The Capitol Records Building.

The weather.

Or Pink’s Hot Dogs.

Are you FUCKING kidding me? Of all the awesome stuff on that original list of theirs, from the hills to the Getty Center to Langer’s, the Central Library, Topanga Canyon, Disney Hall, the Watts Towers, the Huntington Gardens, the Bradbury Building, Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles, the beach, Griffith park, Sunset Blvd., the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood Forever, neon art, and the effing quality of the light itself, we come down to THESE four choices?

I feel ill.

If Pink’s wins, I’m sticking my heat in a vat of boiling wiener water and ending it all. At SKOOBY’S.

The weather is really the only viable choice here, IMO. I mean, these things are all cool (with the exception of Pinks, OMG they are awful, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gotten some sort of gastric distress there) , but THE BEST THING ABOUT LA?! You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Go vote here & save my anemic faith in the people of this city.

All you ladies out there better prepare yourselves to wait in the kind of lines you rolled your eyes at while dropping off your kids at a screening of Star Wars or Superman or Pokemans or whatever it is kids are into these days.

Taken around noon at The Grove. Click to biggify.

My daughter a junior at MHS.  She came home the other day with “Dad if we buy the teacher a National Geographic DVD I get extra credit and can raise my biology grade an entire level”.  What?

Yup, pretty easy deal.  There are a few strings attached.  Namely besides buying one of the DVD’s from the mans impact on earth series she needed to do a study guide and a test.  Still for $19.99 plus tax that’s a decent return on the investment.   Now we actually may see an A in a class she has struggled in even with the help of a tutor.

But please, don’t tell the teacher if she had asked we would have just gotten it for the class without strings.  We do that in my house.

Today marks the fifth time that Metrolosangeles has chosen to use Twitter:

Shape up for summer with fitness expert Kathy Smith … on the Metro Red Line stairs. http://youtube.com/watch?v=8Px8Q5p1TaQ

What can we learn from this? Your train may not get you to the Westside, and who knows why your damn bus is late. But, at least you’ll be in great shape!

Thanks, Metro!

In a delicious blending of high and low culture, the Getty is screening Monty Python’s Life of Brian at 7:30 tomorrow night as part of a three-film “Imagining Christ” series this weekend. The two films bookending LoB are Buñuel’s Simon of the Desert at 4pm and a Canadian film, Jesus of Montreal, on Sunday at 4pm. You can make reservations for any of the three (or all) at the Getty’s site. Personally, I think Life of Brian is one of the funniest films ever made. And if the Getty crowd can rouse themselves to whistle along with the ending I’ll consider it a peak cinematic experience.

(tomsaint11’s Getty shot used via a Creative Commons license.)

 If you think Pasadena Art is little old blue hairs and their plein air ”California Style” paintings have I got some news for you.

Pasadena’s Museum of California Art explores all sorts of art being produced by California Artists.  Opening June 1 is “Tales from the Strip” by Pete Miller celebrating his Hot Rod Comics and Drag Racing Cartoons.  The show will run through September 14,2008. 

Near and dear to my heart is car stuff.  The cool stuff like Mad Magazine and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth produced back in the day of the hot rod.  Miller in his bio says his inspiration came from Mad’s artists and comical satire of the 1950s and 1960s. I’ve seen Millers work in the past and it is comical satire poking fun at the gearheads and their overbuilt hot rods.  Worth seeing if only to look back at that chapter of our history that was so strongly influenced by LA and So Cal.

Details: Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 East Union Street, Pasadena CA 91101.  Hours: Wednesday - Sunday noon to 5PM.  Adults $7, Kids/Seniors $5.

There is parking in the area but rather than deal with the Pasadena’s Parking Nazis I’d suggest you use metro Gold Line and hop off at Memorial Park Station for a quick 7 block walk.

Before the Secret Service learned to swim, President John F. Kennedy and his army of fans stormed the beaches at Santa Monica. Mission Accomplished.

The year was 1962.

Photo from UCLA Library Digital Collections