Tempest in a styrofoam yogurt cup

Pinkberry, apparently, is all the rage. Personally, I find it pretty inexplicable. While I would never in a million years dream of risking a parking ticket and endureing an hour long wait in line for fro-yo, I was tempted to taste the wonder for myslef when the chain opened a new store in my 'hood. The experience left me wondering what all the fuss was about. I paid nearly five dollars for a cup of sour (in a yummy way) frozen yogurt that was swirled around so the middle remained empty then topped with fruit. Whoop-de-fuck. If I froze a fruit-on-the bottom yogurt then up-ended it (flan style), I would end up with the same thing (and more yogurt) for less than a buck. There's nothing wrong with Pinkberry, there's just nothing so super-freaking-duper about it either. And $5 for a mostly empty cup is a rip-off (it would be a rip-off even if it were full, seriously).

Hail to the Chief!

Had a surprisingly busy President's Day weekend, here's the round-up: Saturday I enjoyed the dark and seedy pleasures of Damiano's Mr. Pizza in the Fairfax district, which in addition to providing a delicious and cheap slice, has an impressive selection of Belgian beers. One overworked waitress left a little something to be desired in the service department and if you mind eating in an unlit room solely by the light of one table candle ensconced in red glass (read, very, very dark), this is def not the place for you. After dinner I joined some friends for an evening of theatre--at least that's what the flier said.
The advertised "Quantum Physics Sex Farce" left much to be desired. If sex farces could be made solely of mildly dirty acronyms (BOOBS=Brotherhood of Organic Beings, etc) and if single entendres were double entendres, they would be made in the shade. As it was, Walking on Sunshine provided a little humor mostly in the form of serious over-acting and many questionable choices in direction. We'll call it a group effort and blame the whole cast and crew. After that I definitely needed a drink, and got a couple at my fav neighborhood spot, NoBar, which sounds pretentious, but is actually fabulous for it's low-key, completely unpretentious not-a-scene scene.

Spent Sunday afternoon wandering Chinatown. Had an acceptable lunch in one of the interchangeable restaurants in the mall and then some yummy bobba downstairs in the tea shop. Then the weirdo weather turned nasty and sent me fleeing back to the Valley.

I learned on Monday that the Getty Center is never open on a Monday, even during a long weekend. However, the Getty Villa in Malibu, where I've never been, is open and we scored passes for that afternoon. Pattered on an ancient Roman villa that was destroyed in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD, the Villa houses Getty's collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan artifacts. The grounds are beautiful and, thanks to the rain, which was the harbinger of more cold weather, but cleared the air, offered an amazing view of the Pacific.

Candice inspired me...

To find some images of my favorite character. Enjoy!

Potshots

While she was alive, Anna Nicole was an easy (and sometimes large) target; I'm disappointed in the New York Times for beating a dead horse in it's obit. Being dead doesn't make her (or anyone) a saint, but an obituary in a national paper should make some effort to summarize a life and it's impact without resorting to snide, smug humor at the expense of the deceased. It just seems nasty and mean-spirited.

Breaking News!

Couple of items from the Are We Retarded? and Where Are Our Priorities? files.

First: The Cartoon Network causes a terror scare. Why is this a prime example of municipal dumassery? A) even if you're not familiar with Aqua Teen Hunger Force (and if you're not, you're already a douche), the device is obviously in the shape of a character giving the finger; since when have terrorists eschewed manifestos and creepy pre-suicide videos in favor images of absurdist cartoon characters flipping the bird? B) Those images were up for weeks before anyone even noticed and they are up in many other cities where they have failed to cause problems; it's pretty fucking lame of Boston to blame someone else for their belated over-reaction and C) they arrested the poor schlubs who were hired by the marketing agency which was hired by the network to implement this campaign of terror. I think if most of us were offered a paying gig from a reputable (and who checks that anyway?) marketing firm to place signs or advertisements for a national cable network, we would assume that what we were doing was legal and had been properly cleared. We would not expect to be arrested and publicly paraded around while the CEO of the marketing firm was "out of the office" and apparently immune to both arrest and pesky reporters. Way to go Boston! Your whole town is now the National Asshole. Fortunately, the 24-hour news cycle has radically sped up the process with which the American public digests incidents like this, so you'll be lucky if you even make it onto Saturday Night Live this week before everyone forgets what the joke's about. And what about the fucking first amendment? Shouldn't this be protected as free speech or something? Probably not, but it's kind of terrifying that one can't express oneself via public litebrite display without running the risk of arrest and national embarrassment at the hands of the Boston PD.
The second story concerns the theft of thousands of dollars worth of wine from a mansion in Silicon Valley. A) stealing wine is kind of genius--it's easy to unload, and if you can't, you can throw one hell of a SuperBowl party. B) Stealing from your rich-bitch (I'm assuming here) employer or client is time-honored passive-resistance of the servant class: power to the plebes! C) Bringing a little crime to the NIMBY, gated-community dwellers who care more about a purloined 50-year-old bottle of Bordeaux than the murder of an 18-year-old one town over isn't altogether a bad thing. It's not exactly social justice, but it does smack the teeniest bit of karma.