Conserve Water! Drink More Broguiere’s Egg Nog!

“My name’s Jiggy and I approve this message.”

You can haunt/stalk the refrigerated sections of various grocers and minimarts in crapshoot hopes of finding some still on the shelves or maybe if you’re lucky that one bottle way in the back behind the buttermilk that some covetous bagboy buried there in some vain attempt of it eluding capture.

Or you can find the patience to wait until sometime next month when San Francisco-based Strauss’ reportedly awesome version of the holiday nectar arrives at whichever upscale marts carry it.

My wife Susan and me? We opt to cut out the gambling and the middleman and the interminable waiting for an out-of-town product and instead support our local awesomeness with a cruise out to the industrial flats of Montebello to go get some of the limited-time glass-encased lusciousness.

You should to too:

Broguiere’s Dairy
505 S. Maple Avenue
Montebello, CA 90640

Just in time for Halloween, the Los Angeles Opera distributed a press release today announcing their first ever costume sale. Over 2500 costume pieces will go sale this Saturday, October 10 from 10:00AM to 6:00PM.

Fantasma De La Opera

Pieces for sale will include everything ranging from complete “merry peasant” and “medieval courtier” costumes to individual pieces such as capes, hats, shoes and fans. Highlights of the collection include a number of “diva dresses,” stunning hand-crafted gowns worn by LA Opera’s leading ladies including Carol Vaness (La Traviata, Don Giovanni, The Merry Widow and La Rondine), Jennifer Larmore (L’Italiana in Algeri), Maria Ewing (Fedora), Verónica Villarroel (Idomeneo) and Karita Mattila (Jenufa), as well as costumes worn by superstar tenor Plácido Domingo (Un Ballo in Maschera and Idomeneo). From what I hear, there is only one latex Fly costume so get in line early if you want to nab that one!

Prices will range from $10 for accessories to $20 for hats and masks, complete costumes from $150 all the way up to $5,000 for couture pieces. Cash, check and credit cards are all accepted.

LA Opera is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The Company’s Costume Shop is staffed by dozens (more…)

Chocolate Covered Bacon

Our own faboomama and Travis recently shared their L.A. County Fair adventures with us. In case you missed your chance to have your own, it’s not too late. This coming Wednesday through Sunday (September 30th-October 4th) is the last week of the fair and I have 2 tickets to give away to one lucky reader, good for any of the remaining days.

I went myself last night with the intention of trying some fried delicacy that I’ve never tasted before. Instead, I was drawn into my new favorite food, chocolate covered bacon! It’s available at all of the churro stands and is scrumptious! It tastes a lot better than my poor quality cell phone photo to the right makes it look. I highly recommend it.

If you too want to head out to Pomona to indulge in some unhealthy eats, ride some rides, play some games, and see baby farm animals for free, leave a comment below. Tell me why you want the tickets and how you plan to spend your visit to the L.A. County Fair. Winner will be picked Monday night by midnight.

Yes, I know it’s hot. It’s hot, and it’s in Pomona; these things are true. Even so, you should go to the LA County Fair because it’s soooo fun. Seriously–mini monster trucks, fried snickers, the tilt o’ whirl, mechanical bulls, and baby goats. You tell me how you could pack more fun into one 24-hour period. I went last weekend with some of my compadres, and here are some visual highlights. You can click them all to make them bigger and thus more fair-like.

The fair is a treasure trove of the outsized and grotesque. What better king than King Taco?

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LA County Fair

It’s that time of year again. The 2009 LA County Fair took advantage of the Labor Day weekend to open its doors. Opening Day is always exciting because you get to see everything so fresh. The fair will run until October 4th, so you have plenty of time to pick the best day to visit.

The Fair is offering $1 admission Sept. 5 – 7 between 10am and 1pm.  That means, tomorrow is your last chance to take advantage of this deal. Throughout the park, there are other cost-saving deals for the Labor Day Weekend, such as $1 fountain drinks between 1pm and 4pm and $1 carnival rides between 4pm and 7pm.

This year, we spent a lot less time eating and drinking and more time walking the fairgrounds. I’ve only missed 3 years since 1984, and used to go up to 3 times a week in college. This was the first time I had realized that there is an NHRA museum and a train museum run by the LA chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society on site. Be sure to check them out. The NHRA museum has  $1 entrance and with so much to look at, including the original Batmobile from the 1966 Batman TV show, it’s well worth it.

Also, worth catching is the Jursassic Planet exhibit (I have video in my Flickr photos linked below). It’s educational and just plain cool watching the dinosaurs move. If you have young ones, they may want to stay outside the hall. My three year old did not enjoy being in there and most little kids did a lot of screaming. As always, the new baby animals are a treat as are all the wonderful insects and reptiles on display in three different sections of the fairgrounds this year. The Home & Garden theme this year is Gateway to Africa and even I have to admit to being impressed. This is the first year in a long, long time that the theme was unified and tight, from the greenhouse all the way to the top of the hill.

So, wear some comfy shoes, get some sunscreen and have fun at the Fair. If you want to live vicariously for the moment, you can visit my flickr set.

LA Country Fair
1101 W. McKinley Ave.,
Pomona, CA 91768

Jesus may have walked on water, but, during the next few days, you can walk — or ride — over it. First, the Marina Del Rey Water Bus ends its summer run on Labor Day, September 7.  I took the Bus across the Marina Harbor on July 4th, with an actual destination, but it’s a total and picturesque blast just to get on it and buzz around the Harbor.  We saw and waved (local hipsters, if such people exist in the Marina, flash the peace sign.  horizontal like.  from outside in) at a bunch of people partying on their docked boats.  We even saw seals basking on the docks!  And the Water Bus only costs a buck each way!  You can get on and off at a bunch of stops (see website).  In fact, you could even take the Water Bus on Sunday afternoon, and then walk down Abbott Kinney (about a mile) and meet up with the L.A. Metbloggers and friends for coffee at Intelligentsia! I may do just that.  So forget those pricey, snooty cruise boats that go to Catalina or into the Bay or whatever where you have to get dressed up and drink Chardonnay and listen to lite jazz.  The Water Bus is where it’s at baby!
Click for more wet fun

Last Thursday, I caught Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women at the Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series, and, yee-hah, it was a hootenany of a good time.  I went *under protest* because I’m not a country + western music fan (Lyle Lovett being an exception).  I parked in one of Santa Monica’s plentiful and cheap parking structures along 2nd and 4th streets, but, due to the huge crowds near the Pier, I picked the farthest one away (between Arizona and Wilshire) and traded congestion for more walking.

Sorry for the lack of camera, but I can report that the Pier was packed (although many people were no doubt taking advantage of the mild weather and were not necessarily there for the music), as was the Pier’s parking lot. I did not get up to the stage area on the Pier, but rather, went to the sand just below and South of the Pier.  There must have been thousands of people on the beach, spread out on blankets, with food, drinks (and, based on the smell, lots of pot), and candles.   It took a few text messages back and forth to locate my gang.  How did people at Woodstock find each other?
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Ready for a whale of a time? My Candyblogging good friend and former Metblogs contributor Cybele just reminded me that an organization near and dear to her seafaring heart, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society (ACS-LA), is hosting its Annual Blue Whale Trip, which will be setting sail this Saturday from Santa Barbara.

The ACS-LA is calling this “the best summer whale-watching season in memory.”

From its latest report: “The krill showed up early and in vast quantities. The humpback whales put on a great show throughout the spring and neglected to leave like they often do when the blue whales showed up. The blue whales also arrived early and have stayed in the same general area. And for the last month, the krill has been on the surface almost every day. That means surface lunge feeding blue and humpback whales. Every day seems to be better than the day before.”

This is an all-day excursion in the Santa Barbara Channel aboard the 88-foot catamaran Condor Express that weighs anchor at 8 a.m. and returns to port at approximately  4 p.m., and the ACS-LA has announced its extending the early bird $99 discount fare right up to the date of the trip. A continental breakfast is included in the price and there will be a raffle. More info here.

Photo is one of Cybele’s from her Flickr photoset of the 2007 trip.

Aaaaall riiiiight, go ahead: Color me obsessed with the sunflower patch I planted  in the backyard as part of the Great Sunflower Project. But the place is a veritable eco-magnet, drawing a wide array of birds, mammals and insects, and it seems rarely does a visit not yield some new creature taking up residence in one of the 17 blooms. This morning’s find was this entirely patient green lynx spider posing in the following photo I’m particularly proud of:

(click pic to go big if you’re not a total arachnophobe)

Where was this taken? It was taken here.

Previously:
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
Inter Here
Stunflower
Dueling Coyotes
Restoration Era

Rapids and flood control break.

Not that I care, as it’s just a side bar to the river running for a change. Most of this year the river has been bone dry but miraculously it appeared today. Nice to have it running during one of our hottest days in the SGV so far this summer. So nice I HAD to go for a walk and just soak in the sounds of the rushing water.

The San Gabriel River, unlike the LA River, maintains a natural bed along with berms and stuff for flood control. The natural bed allows for the recharging for the local aquifers as well as flood control as needed during significant storms.

The San Gabriel River Bike Trail runs along the river from Azusa Canyon to the sea. For you bicyclists who are early risers you can park at the Foothill Ave “Lario Park” entrance as early as 6AM to take in the glories of this river while it is full and running. If you are a hiker, added bonus is that there are trails that will take you to waters’ edge with thickets where you can just hang and enjoy the solitude. Note: the Lario Park entrance closes at 6:30PM sharp with a lock by the LA Sheriff Dept.

There are a few more pics after the jump from my little meander this afternoon. (more…)