hamming it up

My friends were visiting from out of town and we were about to have dinner. I suggested Kostas Family Restaurant in West Covina. We were in the area and I've been wanting to try that place since I'm a big fan of Greek food. Turns out Kostas has Greek, Italian, and Mexican. I had a gyro sandwich and my friends had the lamb shanks and Greek salad. The food was good, but the real draw is that they have karaoke on Saturday and Sunday nights. Normally, I don't like karaoke, but there is something liberating about singing on stage in front of an audience of strangers. The crowd was a bunch of regulars, some with their own CDs. They were so encouraging and friendly, "pick a song! any song!" They all said goodbye to each other at the end of the night and wished my friend a belated Happy Birthday. It's an older crowd, but you can't find a nicer bunch.

standing still

This year, I finally got to see Festival of Arts Pageant of the Masters. In past years, I missed it because the weekend shows were sold out. This year, I ordered tickets in March for a July show and the seats were okay, but still pretty far back. Who knows what next year will bring?

So, it was worth the wait and the drive to Laguna Beach. The show is an hour and a half of real people posing to look like original works of art in an outdoor amphitheatre. An orchestra plays and a narrator describes the scenes. I liked it when they broke down one display to show how the lighting, costumes, and set went into creating the final product. It reminded me of 9th Grade English when we were divided into groups to form tableaus of scenes from Great Expectations. That was a fun project. This year, the Pageant celebrated its 75th Anniversary with the theme "Young at Heart." The first act followed the theme by replicating works of art from childhood stories and scenes from adolescence. The second half less so. Next year, the Pageant will continue to celebrate its 75th anniversary (a la Disney?) and the theme will be "All the World's a Stage ..." In order to better see the effects of the lighting and make-up, I hope to sit closer. Maybe even really close. POTM enlists hundreds of volunteers and I signed up to be on their mailing list. We'll see what they announce in January.

Tickets to Pageant of the Masters also gets you admission to the Festival of Arts exhibition.

my socks

The other day, I arrived home after work and removed my shoes. When I walked into the kitchen, I felt something on a spot on the sole of my foot. I thought maybe I had a hole in my sock, but when I looked, no hole. Then, when I removed my sock, out came a paperclip, a large paperclip. Okay, how did a paperclip get into my sock and how did I walk around all day without noticing it? Strange.

descanso gardens

07/07/07 was a very popular wedding date. Alas, my friend missed it by a day, probably because it was too tough to compete with the 30,000 other weddings occurring on Saturday. Anyway, his wedding was beautiful and fun. Very lively and things progressed at a quick pace. Love that.


the gardens at descanso in la canada flintridge




i've been to a lot of weddings, but this was the first one with a mariachi band!


surf and turf--new york striploin and grilled lobster with asparagus and yukon gold mashed potatoes. good, but a little tough for my taste. catering by patina. great service

portuguese

After the Kwik-E-Mart, my friend and I stopped at Natas Pastries, the only Portuguese bakery in LA. I know, it's hard to believe, but Fatima, the super-nice owner, confirmed it. I asked her if she watched Emeril. She said, "Yes, he is Portuguese and I think his show is around here. I should send him a box, because he doesn't know that I'm here, I don't think." This place has all sorts of goodies, but is named after the nata, a custard-filled pastry in a crispy, flaky shell, similar to a Chinese egg tart. The sweets are delicious, but go at the right time and you might run into one of the celebrity regulars, such as Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick, or Elizabeth Perkins. For a bakery, it is open pretty late, until 8pm Mon-Fri and 7pm on Sundays.

$20.50 for this box of treats

the kwik-e-mart

Twentieth Century Fox has teamed up with 7-Eleven to promote The Simpsons Movie, which opens Friday, July 27. In a very successful reverse product placement campaign, twelve 7-Eleven stores have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts, the convenience store featured on the TV show. Last week, I visited the store in Burbank. In the middle of a weekday, there was a line outside the door. There was a guy regulating the number of people who could enter the store. Every customer had a camera or cameraphone out, taking pictures of the sign outside, the graffiti on the building signed "El Barto," the funny signs in the store, and the plastic larger-than-life characters. There was a buzz in the air, even though there was no Buzz Cola on the shelves. Everything was sold out. There was no KrustyO's cereal or even pink donuts. I asked the guy when they expected to get more products in stock and he said hopefully by the next day. The turnout was so much greater than what they ever imagined. The day before, a truck drove all the way from Georgia to deliver cups. Okay, so I did get a "Blue Woohoo! Vanilla" Squishee in a Squishee cup. I would have been very disappointed if I left empty-handed. It was a lot of fun and I plan on returning. For Simpsons fans, it is definitely worth checking out, but go when it's less crowded. Remember, they are open 24 hrs.

check out more pics at LAist

singing along

I've already met my summer quota of visiting the Hollywood Bowl. I went twice in the last week. First, for the much anticipated "Sing-a-Long Sound of Music," then three days later for the July Fourth Fireworks Spectacular. Both were great shows.

I took the Park & Ride both times. For the Sound of Music, this meant arriving at the Bowl half an hour before the pre-show. The pre-show is mildly entertaining, but makes for a loooong night, considering the movie itself is 3 hours long. During the pre-show, some German performers sang songs from the movie, yodeled, and cracked jokes and then people lined up for the costume contest. This year, the winner was a person who dressed up like a hand holding a moonbeam. How do you solve a problem like Maria? ... How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? Once it got dark, they showed the movie on the giant movie screen. The lyrics to the songs appeared on the screen once the actors started singing, karaoke style. I'm the kind of person when I'm driving in my car, I turn the radio on really loud so I don't have to hear myself singing. But, among 18,000 Sound of Music fans, I shed my inhibitions and sang aloud. It's quite an interactive experience, with the whole crowd booing the Nazis, hissing at the baroness, and cheering on our heroine every step of her journey. I heard last year, instead of playing the movie, they had actors performing the whole musical. I don't know what they'll do next year, but I think I might drive to a nearby lot where the parking is not stacked and skip the pre-show.




thousands of cell phones waved in the air as the Captain sang "Edelweiss"

The Fourth of July Fireworks show was fantastic. This year, the Bowl celebrated with music from the old West in honor of the 100th anniversaries of John Wayne and Gene Autry. Grammy award winners Riders In The Sky were the special guests. They did the music for Toy Story 2. The LA Philharmonic started with the "Star-Spangled Banner" and performed classics such as "Theme from Rawhide" and "Baby Elephant Walk" and ended with patriotic songs like "America the Beautiful" set to a huge fireworks show.