Sunday Afternoon Post

Yea, it's about time to play catch-up with my two and a half loyal blog readers and fill you in with exciting stuff that's been happening over the month of October! (Really, nothing too exciting). I meant to blog about my pick ups a while back, but have just been lagging in this weird October heat which just drains my energy from basically doing anything productive (except maybe cursing at the sun and eating ice cream).

I was in F-Town a couple weekends ago and visited my two favorite stores there- Otto and Out of Vogue (which I blogged about in this post). Anyway, from Otto, I picked up a book about Neutra. The pic of him on the back cover is kinda scary, but it's a good read about a lot of the architectural greatness that he created around the Silver Lake area. I also picked up this awesome Tiki Sea World mug.

I thought it was an authentic Fire King mug cuz I looked at the branding underneath and saw an "F." Sweet, says I...but when I got home and did my research it actually turned out to be "Federal" instead of Fire King. Cool mug which will be added to my growing collection of Pyrex bowls. Speaking of Tiki culture, if you're in the Glendizzle area, be sure to check out Forest Lawn's exhibit, "In Search of Tiki," which features tons of Tiki artifacts from the Pacific Islands as well as Tiki artist Shag and a few collections from Marc and Alice Davis (awesome sketches from Adventureland and the Tiki Room).

Mmmk, I just ate left over Thai food and now I'm food coma-ing.

So here's a list of random pick ups for this month (cuz the combination of greasy thai food and the warm sun in my room is making me groggy).

-Posters for the People: The Art of the WPA > awesome hard cover book featuring eye-catching posters
-Krazy Kids vintage food graphics > Nice compilation of food product logos and packaging from the 50s-70s
-Orla Kiely bag (I couldn't resist, it was on sale)
-The Office quote pens from Target's $1 section "The Schrutes produce very thirsty babies"

I don't feel the Whoo hoo!

I don't really pay attention to the news unless it's celeb gossip, random shenanigans in Ohio, or pigs with lipstick, but I was shocked to hear yesterday that my bank, Washington Mutual, went belly up and was bought by one of the nation's strongest banks- JPMorgan Chase. I got a notice from the bank with a headline that read,

"Exciting news for our customers! We're proud to announce that WaMu has become part of one of the nation's strongest banks...blah blah blah...backed by the strength and security of JPMorgan Chase."

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did I miss something here? Should I be celebrating that my bank was apparently struggling with these mortgage woes and eventually collapsed cuz it couldn't handle the market's instability? Far from being excited, I went to the WaMu site this morning and saw this image sans thought bubble:


This picture basically summarizes what WaMu did to its customers. Gotcha!
*Picture found from The Consumerist

*Update* I just checked the WaMu site, and this is what's up now:



Yes. Blank. Empty. Hopefully my bank account isnt.

TCAG Fall Concert Series part 1: Beck (Hollywood Bowl)

Bust out those cardigans and American Apparel shirts kids 'cuz it'sa concert season and we're starting it off with a bang. Beck played the bowl of bowls along with MGMT and Spoon.



Stunning views aside, the Hollywood Bowl is also known for another fact: BYOB (and F). Along with the usual Porto's pickups (Potato balls, ham croquettes, and coconut macaroons) we also kept it local and picked up some musubis from L&L. For dranks, we hit up Trader Joe's. On the clerk's suggestion, I picked up some 3 Horses tallboys. Musubis, beer, and Beck: the winning combination.


When MGMT started up, I decided their freaky groovy music would best be appreciated whilst slightly intoxicated. I cracked open one of the cans and anticipated some fancy beery goodness (it's Trader Joe's right?) I wish I had four hands so I could give them brewkies four thumbs down.



But I'm a trooper and I put down four of those badboys by the end of the night (resulting in multiple trips to the men's room). In any case, MGMT's set was pretty short but they played their popular songs and got people moving in their seats.

Spoon was next and absolutely killed it. They played the jams and ended their set with one of my favorite songs off their latest album, Black Like Me.

Beck took the stage thereafter and kicked off the set with Loser. Now I'm not the greatest of dancers, but hearing a 90s classic and having 3.5 tallboys in your system works wonders: I was on my feet before you could say "In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey". Beck followed that up with more of his faster songs. In the middle of his set, Beck was joined by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings (which was conducted by his father David Campbell). He ended the set with "Chemtrails". The encore included "Where it's at" and the crowd went wild. Most I've danced in my life.

Set list:

Loser / Girl / Nausea / Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Dylan cover) / Guero / Nicotine & Gravy / Mixed Bizness / Devils Haircut / Timebomb / Soul of a Man / Gamma Ray / Hell Yes / Black Tambourine / Modern Guilt / Paper Tiger / Think I’m in Love / Missing /
Lonesome Tears / Replica / Round the Bend / Chemtrails

Encore:

Where It’s At / E-Pro

Sunset Junction, What's Your Function

On Saturday, the bf and I checked out Sunset Junction. I'm not really in the mood to write a detailed description of the hipster awesomeness that I saw or the numerous times I got asked if I'm tested for STDs and Hepatitis. Yea, I'm not sure if I would go up to a stranger and say, "Hey! Have you been tested! I think you should! It only takes 5 minutes...here's a sticker!" For me, that's a personal question, I don't care if the stranger himself has been tested, I really don't wanna know what/who/how he's done the dirty deed. I was just there to grab some free shit, check out the bands, and enjoy the smells of street meat. Anyway, check out my photos of the festival...there's only three...so enjoy.



I love these tall jugs with colorful fruit drinks. They just add so much color to an otherwise boring white booth.



This is the band Bodies of Water. Me thinks they sound just like Arcade Fire.



Yes, I know what you're thinking. The Video Market has adult movie rentals?!?! (That's a dude to the left of the chick. I think he rocks his outfit better than Ms. Pochahontas boots).

Life size Guido!

If I had a favorite car character from the Pixar movie Cars, it would have to be Guido- the forklift whose dream was to participate in a pit stop for a real race car. Anyway, while driving around Downtown showing my relatives around, we stopped next to such a car. What a cute car too! The hipster dude driving looked comical because who else would drive such a tiny cramped car for the sake of being cool? Yea yea, Steve Urkel drove a small car too, but this guy was no Stefan Urquelle. Give me my cool juice!


Guido from Cars


Guido in Downtown

Historic Filipinotown Festival

For those of you who don't know where Historic Filipinotown is, it's located on the Temple street corridor parallel to the Hollywood Freeway beginning at Glendale and ending around Hoover.

Today's festival started with a 5k run/walk in the morning and continued with music and dances performed by local dance troupes. There were also several narrated bus tours hosted by the Filipino American Library. During the tour, the guide explored the significance of several historical sites and people that shaped the neighborhood and answers the question, "What is historic about Historic Filipinotown?".

Scroll down for some pics of the festivities and the tour!


These are the banners that hang on the street lamps around Historic Filipinotown.


Jolibee was one of the primary food sponsors during the event. I opted out not to eat the Chicken Joy today, but it did look delish.


There was also a Goldilock's booth selling biscotti and ginseng tea. I wanted pastries and mocha rolls, dammit.


Randomly, John McCain was there too.


I have no clue who these ladies are but they were kind enough to let me take a picture of them.


On the bus tour, we stopped at Remy's Gallery where they currently have a traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibit called "Singgalot: The Ties That Bind (Filipinos in America, from Colonial Subjects to Citizens)." I learned quite a lot about the numerous waves of Filipino immigrants and that there are more Filipinos living in Illinois than in Seattle!


The only Filipino monument in America dedicated to the Filipino Veterans who fought in WWII. The monument is made of reflective stone because it's supposed to represent our reflection and how we're all part of the past. (Or something like that.)

There were other interesting highlights of the trip such as the guys behind us saying, "Dude, check this out!" or "Dude, we can have some poker night fundraiser!" or "Dude, I say dude too much!" We also had some fiasco with the Rampart po-po before our bus took off for the tour, but that's another story. Anyway, I highly suggest going on the tour because it's uber educational and offers a glimpse about the Filipinos who originally settled in the area and eventually had to relocate to other areas such as Carson and Cerritos.

Comic con 2008 PICKUPS

One can't go to comic con without snagging some jawesome freebies and some not-so-freebies.

Here's my loot for 2008:



The initial madness of all my bags dumped out on the bed.



The absolute best free swag from the con is the Red Dress Cylon Six minimate From the Sci-Fi booth. Even though I'm more of a Kubrick fan, I can't hate on a free Battlestar minimate. Also, Eureka mints on the right.


Sci-fi also had the coolest bag of the show with their take on the famous Bloomingdale's bag


Bionic bionic six..oo wee ooh. The premise of this 80s cartoon was the Six-Million Dollar man and the Bionic Woman have a multi-cultural family with super powers (Asian karate kid, Caucasian Jock kid, African-American nerd kid, Valley girl with walkman, and a robot gorilla thrown in for good measure). As hokey as it sounds, the cartoon was pretty rad and had better than usual animation for an American show. Guy at the booth gave me a good deal on these.


Seeing as how my old school Transformers toys are rotting away in a landfill somewhere, the Transformers Encore line is the closest I'll get to the real deal. Of the ones available at the booth, Starscream was the best. This will go well with my Masterpiece Starscream. I was *this* close to buying the Soundwave mp3 player but realized I don't need anymore soundwaves or mp3 players.


We also managed to pick up some actual graphic novels this time around. These are from Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who is credited for starting the alternative comics movement in Japan in the 1950s. They are being translated now by Drawn and Quarterly.


Got this for my dad and bro who watch the show. I gotta get on that.

Random stuff:

Comic-con 2008

Once again, we made the trek all the way down to San Diego (which of course in German means a "Whale's Vagina") for the sweetest (non-erotic) convention, Comic-con. We saw a lot of things, smelled a bunch of rankness, and grabbed a crapload free stuff. Here are da pics:



Starscream from the new Animated Transformers series. I think it was a girl in that costume...



Spider-man + helicopter = MIND BLOWN



Special Edition Optimus Prime. This ish is coming out in December and it will be mine, oh yes it will be mine.





The stormtroopers were out in full effect.



Keeping up the tradition, we took a break and ate some grub at Dick's.



Cardboard Optimus is back!



The WB booth was always crowded for some reason. It also smelled like cheese and eggs (not in a good way) around that booth.



Megaman and Naruto, finally together. I told that kid to do that Rasengan, but that fool didn't know what I was talking about...weak

Next time: Free swag and pick ups!