Neutra Burrito Supreme

We went to the Silver Lake area a few weeks ago to check out the Neutra houses. Pretty cool stuff. Boosting up the neighborhood's worth with rows of houses with clean lines - Neutra's signature - and unassuming wood and glass design. The other day while exploring my neighborhood, I stopped by the Richard Riordon Library or the Central Library as I still call it. Wouldn't you know it, there was an exhibit on Richard Neutra's sketches.

The man was the da Vinci of architecture. He drew his own plans, climbed Aztec pyramids with Frida and Diego, and fought with the Austrian Brigade in WWI. He also supported Upton Sinclair's socialist bid for the presidency in the '30s. He drew plans for low-cost housing for migrant workers using raw materials such as fruit crates. The man was as interesting as his work...maybe even more so.

After finding all this out, we stumbled upon Mai's Organic Mexican food. The veggie burrito was yummy but the nagging question of Mai possibly being Vietnamese bugged me to the very last bite. Not that race should have anything to do with it. On Broadway, there's an Indian and Mexican restaurant. How random is that? Beans and tikka masala?

Fear and Loafing in Los Angeles

Being called a "dog hussy" while taking a jaunt down Broadway made me pause a little and say thanks. Living in downtown has changed up the venue. More exciting, more urban, more fun. However, I'm not indifferent to those pushed away from my street, Spring, to Los Angeles Street and down to Skid Row to accommodate the feckless and the yuppies. Although I don't consider myself a yuppie, living in a high rise loft sure makes me feel like one.

I'm aware that a couple of years ago, the Spring Street bus route was hacked away due to tenant complaints of too much noise. Restaurants, clubs, and chic shops have sprouted. This is not like the downtown I grew up visiting. The revitalization of the city is amazing...dog walkers everywhere. I just feel major guilt about how the other half lives...two blocks from me. Look at me...I've finally fulfilled my dream of living in the city, yet I'm holding my breath in worry about patting myself on the back.

Coma como en el D.F.

The OC Weekly has a good read about Santa Ana's taco trucks. Check out the postings from Los Hermanos Lonchera sin Frontera at twitter.com/loshermanosLSF. They've certainly taken their cue from the Kogi folks.

I lived in Japan for a year in the '90s, and I spent an inordinate amount of Tokyo time searching for a half-decent burrito. The best I found was at a restaurant called El Sol in the Umejima district, but the most interesting was from a beaten up roach coach in Shibuya. The owner had decorated the green truck with Don't Mess with Texas stickers, and he was quick to warn me that "Japanese no like beans," so naturally the burrito was beanless. I'll have to dig up my photo and post it up, but in the meantime the photo above is from Garden Grove's Korean District.

Lone Wolf and Cub

Since my dad retired a few years back and moved from San Jose to the Fresno area, he's gone from casual hiker to disciplined ultralight backpacker. He cuts ounces by any means...no tent, sawed-off toothbrush, minimal changes of clothes. He's even perfected his own stove made from a Heineken can.

After a few misses, we were finally able to coordinate a trip together. I'm still recovering from last weekend's backpacking in the upper reaches of Sequoia National Park. The payoff of otherworldly granite crags, clear lakes, shooting stars, melting snowpack, and spectacular views was worth the hours of steep trekking and the rationed toilet paper. Thanks, Dad!

Bob Bablah

I've been getting rid of my accumulated junk, simplifying and getting ready for a move to a smaller home with less storage space. I sold off my records, donated bags of clothes, and threw away useless scraps of paper. I'm still asking myself why I hung onto GTE phone bills from the '90s for so long. On the packrat scale of 1 to 10, I'm somewhere in the 7 or even 8 range, so it's a good feeling to finally let go.

Amongst other holdovers, I'm now down to one box of comic books. My old DC favorites, including the Perez/Wolfman era Teen Titans and Earth-2 titles like All-Star Squadron, are awaiting final judgment. I didn't realize I had so many Bob's Big Boy comics from the days when the restaurant would hand them out to customers.

I took another drive by the almost completely demo'd Johnie's Broiler in Downey that's being restored to a new life as a Bob's Big Boy. I caught the sign contractor in action...

Santa Ana Library...the fee's knees

The miserable Santa Ana Library charges $2 for each DVD or VHS checkout, and starting July 1st our lovely city kicked in a 50-cent fee for CD checkouts. Although I'm a Santa Ana resident, these fees are partly why I patronize the City of Orange Public Library way more frequently. No charge for DVDs or CDs there.

The Santa Ana budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year is revealing. According to the budget, last fiscal year's library rental charges only amounted to a skimpy $5,870 for the city coffers. That divides out to about 56 movie checkouts each week. Total. For a city with a population hovering about the 350,000 mark.

Newsflash to the Library Board and the Library Executive Director...uh, I mean the Parks and Recreation Executive Director, because the Library Department was just swallowed up by Parks and Rec...you will take in more library revenue if you eliminate the DVD/VHS/CD fees, which would increase circulation, and inevitably lead to late returns and late fees! How do you think video stores make the big bucks? (Pssst...l a t e f e e s.) I'm constantly coughing up a dollar here and a dollar there at the Orange Library because of my forgetfulness, so you can say I'm personally funding a decent film and music selection in my friendly neighboring city to the northeast.

Ramblin'wood

I grew up in a nondescript San Jose neighborhood with housing tracts constructed in the mid-'70s to the early '80s. Not quite East San Jose, not quite South San Jose, and no catch-all name for the neighborhood, unless you count the Ramblewood tag that never really took. Something tells me South Central San Jose won't stick either.

I remember being upset that I lived in a nameless place, and to this day I have difficulty explaining the location. It doesn't seem right to describe a neighborhood in terms of freeways and freeway exits or the nearest shopping mall. Maybe I'll start saying I grew up near the Lord of the Rings streets. Maybe I grew up in Middle-earth.

Los Angeles neighborhood identity is a tricky business. A sliver of the Van Nuys neighborhood wants to leave and join up with the adjacent, tonier Sherman Oaks neighborhood. Valley Glen and Lake Balboa also split from Van Nuys in recent years. Poor Van Nuys. I don't know what's worse...to be a neighborhood with zero identity or a neighborhood with a negative identity.