One Sentence Review - Beck

When: Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Where: Echo

For a benefit show that was announced just 5 days prior, it was a great concert – super tight set, great energy from Beck (and the band) - it made me like him even more than I already did (despite the fact that he's a crazy Scientologist); plus I noticed that Beck and Kate share the same hair stylist.

One Sentence Review - Michael Gira

When: Sunday, March 8, 2009
Where: The Echo

He plays with a pain that's achingly familiar.


Sean interviewed him a few years ago, you can read the interview here.

Two Mensches' Day in L.A.

Sean and I decided to take this past Friday off so we could head up to LA and basically enjoy a day away from the office.

The day started off with a visit to the Skirball Cultural Center to visit the Zap! Pow! Bang! Superhero exhibit. The exhibit focuses on the golden age of comics (1938-1950), while the Skirball’s mission is to explore the connections between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of the American democratic ideals.

In case you didn’t know, the early beginning of comic books (and super heroes) has its roots deep in the Jewish art of storytelling; most of early artists and writers were sons of Jewish immigrants. Since the Skirball focuses on Jewish culture and its various permeations into our lives, it’s a great fit for the museum. The docents there are wonderful – think of an entire docent staff made up of the sweetest bubbes you’ve ever met. We took the 10 minute docent tour of the exhibit, just for kicks, and it was surprisingly funny (imagine having your grandma teach you about the history of comics and then throwing in some really cheesy jokes).
The exhibit itself was informative, but a little on the small side. Lots of original artwork, informative bios on the main players, some interactive displays (which were geared more towards little kids, like a ‘draw your own superhero’ area and a telephone booth where kids could change from their clothes into Superman or Batman costumes.
The highlight of the trip was seeing Jerry Robinson, curator of the exhibit, being interviewed by the LA times. Jerry Robinson helped name Robin (of Batman and Robin) and co-created the Joker, among other superheroes and villains. As we all slowly realized who this elderly gentleman was that was being interviewed, we slowly made our way over to him and this hush came over the entire exhibit. (Well, except for the two tiny terrors who couldn’t care less about him and just wanted to try on costumes and run around the entire exhibit banging on tables.) As an aside, Jerry had quite the entourage of lovely ladies with him.

The next stop on our tour was Greenblatt’s Deli. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten at Greenblatt’s. It’s a great deli that has an excellent wine store attached to it. The wine store’s something else: on one shelf you’ll see a 92 point $600 bottle of wine and right next to it you’ll find an equally good wine for only $10. Crazy. And no trip to LA is complete without a star-sighting. (You think I kid, but 90% of the time we head up to LA we run into an actor/actress.) This time, Ethan Embry came into Greenblatt’s right after us. I never get tired of seeing people I see in movies/on tv in real life; never. And at this point, we’ve turned it into a game to see who can spot the first actor of the night; and then who can spot the most.

The third stop on our tour was Amoeba. Also known as the abyss in which Sean will lose himself for hours at a time. We’ve never been able to get out of Amoeba in less than two hours (I’m only slightly exaggerating). Luckily, with my well-honed shadowing abilities, I was able to keep us both on target and get us out of Amoeba in a fairly decent amount of time, while still giving Sean time to wander around absent mindedly.

The fourth stop on our tour was Secret Headquarters, a comic book store on Sunset, where we picked up a few items.

The fifth, and final, stop on our tour was seeing Candice and Jeremy. They showed us their sweet new scooter and then we were off for some crazy-good Japanese food at Haru Ulala.

More Kudos for Santa Ana

Thursday night we went to the Grand Central Art Center in downtown Santa Ana for a yelp event. Downtown Santa Ana's awesome - lots of great restaurants and bars, cool-looking lofts and almost everything's within walking distance. After helping ourselves to appetizers from Memphis, wine from MAWL , random interpretations of reviews by Improv Schmimprov, and some raffle prize booty, we weren't ready to call it a night quite yet. So we went across the street to Lola Gaspar.

I've gotta say - that place is awesome. If I were still in the dating game - Lola Gaspar would be my go-to first date place. It's such a great place, I was surprised it was in Orange County, it belongs in LA. Great music, great atmosphere, and wonderful food. It's a small, darkly lit place with a long wooden bar and intimate seating. They have a great wine and cocktail menu - I went with caipirinha with strawberries. And their food - holy crap. We had a duck feast - duck confit french fries that were covered in cheese and green chili sauce and some spicy pulled duck tacos. So, take the advice all of my single friends - go to Lola Gaspar on your next date; what with the low lighting, cozy seating, super strong Brazillian drinks, and enough food to put you in a coma - you'll walk away willing to kiss anybody:

View from a Window

Seeing mountains in the distance never ceases to amaze this flatlander. I'm starting to understand why Sean says he'd miss the mountains so much if we ever move to Chicago.

Gopher Pride

A couple weeks ago we were in LA to see Andrew Bird play at the Orpheum. Great show - probably shouldn't have gone to a show the day after I spent 14 hours in airports and airplanes, but that's another post. Passed this classy joint* on our way back from dinner. Ever the proud alum, I had to take a photo. Go Gophers!

* the consensus is that it's a strip joint.

Wooooooooo!

Tickets bought yesterday. Hotel rooms reserved 3 months ago. Is it April, yet?

23 Years Ago Today

... the Bears won the Super Bowl. And America got to see the greatest rap video EVER. While I was just a wee lass when this came out - I remember the video. And I remember thinking Jim McMahon was pretty cool - must have been the wrap arounds and sweatband. Enjoy.

Christmas Eve

G-ma, I didn't forget to update this. We just haven't really done anything worth blogging about over the 11 days we've been home. But, we do have some pictures from Christmas Eve so I'm finally getting around to putting those up.

Sean set the mood by putting on the animated fire, courtesy of the Xbox.

We put out a variety of Spanish cheeses as part of the appetizer spread. This is exactly how Sean set it up. I wonder if having both of his parents over is what caused him to stab the cheese knives so violently into the cheese?
How do you make the holidays more enjoyable for all? Share the gift of good hard liquor!

Dinner was pretty easy - we bought a Honey Baked Ham, I made stuffing with andouille sausage, and everyone else brought a dish or two. The leftovers lasted for a week. And then, we taught them to play International Rummy. The Flinns definitely don't play as enthusiastically as the Grobles / Jorns do - but it could be because it was their first time. I think one game with Jimmy would show them how much of a contact game it can be.

Merry Christmas

I finally got around to taking pictures of the tree and village. The major news in the Flinn house is that the village is finally large enough to go on the floor - it's no longer relegated to the top of the CD rack. It's still nowhere near as large as G-ma's, but I still have years to catch up to her. :-)

What our village looks like to all the random bugs that make their way into the condo.

The View from My Seat

The view from my seat, many many many feet above ground, on a flight back from Indianapolis.

Friendsgiving

We decided to go up to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. Nothing against our families, we just decided to take advantage of having a long weekend (that we didn't have to use vacation time on) and head up to the city.

We stayed at my favorite hotel in the city - the Serrano. The weekend included spending Thanksgiving with friends, trying to go to the CA Academy of Sciences, viewing the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the De Young Museum and wining our way through Napa.

The trip got off to an auspicious start - I spent the majority of Wednesday with one of the worst migraines I've had in years (sending me home sick from work a scant few hours after arriving) and convinced I wasn't going to be able to stand the flight. Luckily, some sensory deprivation in the form of a completely dark room, cold compress on my head and hours and hours of sleep before having to catch our evening flight helped a little.

Luckily, Thursday the migraine had subsided to simply an irritating headache and we were able to spend Thanksgiving with friends. Everyone brought a dish. Sean cooked the turkey with a great Giada recipe that involved stuffing the turkey with wedges of oranges, lemons, onions and herbs and slathering it with enough butter to make Paula Dean blush. I made stuffing with andouille sausage, mushrooms, onions and celery. And his friend K. made the most amazing whipped sweet potatoes with a pecan/brown sugar crumble topping. I almost cried when I ate them they were so good.

Here's Sean devouring the turkey...
While we waited for the turkey to cook, we played a bit of Rock Band. And we played it after we ate the turkey, too. -
Our original plan on Friday was to go to the CA Academy of Sciences, but when we got there the line to get in was 2 hours long. I had no intention of standing in line for 2 hours - that's insanity. The museum was offering to refund tickets given that the line was so ridiculous. It was super disappointing - aside from Napa that was the one thing I was really looking forward to. If you visit the website you'll see why - it's a museum, aquarium, architectural wonder all wrapped into one. Luckily, the De Young Museum was right across the park, so we walked through the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit where Sean surprised me with his in-depth knowledge and appreciation for the man and his contribution to the fashion world. Here's a view of the city from the observation deck in the museum.
The rest of Friday evening was spent discovering bars in San Francisco, eating at Shalimar (home of some of the best Indian food I've ever eaten) and then crashing in the hotel.



Luckily, I had Napa to look forward to. After getting off to an early start - I misread the Google Maps directions and thought it was a 2 hour drive (as opposed to the 1 hour drive) to Napa we made it to the first winery on our tour, Nickel & Nickel. I won't bore you with the details, so here's the quick recap: they produce single-vineyard, single-varietal wines. This was some of THE best wine I've had.

This barn was originally built in New England about 200 years ago. The owner of Nickel & Nickel decided he wanted a barn on his property, so he bought it, dismantled it, then re-built it exactly as is in Napa. Without any nails. (Save for the mandatory earthquake structural safeguards.)

This is a view of a part of their vineyard - currently waiting to be re-planted.
Next up was Chappellet. The drive up to the main building was beautiful - we drove through their vines and had a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

Makes me want to pack up and stomp grapes for a living.

To cap off my aunt's visit to CA - we took her with us to a "No on 8" rally in Long Beach. Her visit all weekend had been a pretty accurate "Day in the Life of the Flinns." We hung out and caught up on TV; took her to a party; went to the beach; saw Janeane Garofalo at the Improv; ate a lot of great food and drank a lot of great wine. So, adding a bit of political activity into her trip made it that much accurate.


I'm sure the majority of you have heard about it, either because you live in CA or because of the attention it's been getting on the national news. Or maybe you're a member of one of the LDS churches that's made it their mission to ensure my mother-in-law isn't treated like an equal citizen.

This is an important matter to me for several reasons: 1) my parents didn't raise an intolerant jack-hole. 2) it's personal - like I said earlier, it directly affects my mother-in-law. With the onslaught of media attention this item has been receiving, here's a more personal account - my husband wrote his feelings on the whole thing and he does it much more eloquently than I ever could. (I don't think he uses the word "jack-hole" once in his whole blog.)

Sean's blog

For those non-Californians, here is the wording of Prop 8 as it will appear on our ballots:

Proposition 8
ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

That's it. It's that simple. It's a constitutional amendment to take rights away from people.


I know that by the time most of you read this, it'll be Tuesday, and you'll probably have already voted. But, I thought I'd share a few more links with you:

Los Angeles Times

Newsweek: Can I vote on YOUR marriage?

Beach Visit

What do you do when your aunt from Wisconsin is in town visiting? You go to the beach, of course. Never mind that it was in the high 60s/low 70s and breezy. In Wisconsin it' s freezing and wintery - so coming to the beach so you can gloat to your co-workers (and kids) that you went to the beach for the weekend is a lot of fun.

Here are some random shots I took:
The waves were a lot larger than the pictures make them out to be.The clouds were pretty cool looking, too.
I hate seagulls. They're the rats of the sky. Whenever I see them, I picture the seagulls from "Finding Nemo."

Halloween

Friday night my friend S. invited us to a Halloween party thrown by some people at her office. This meant coming up with a 3rd Halloween costume (costume #2 consisted of a Black Angels tee and a guitar controller from 'Rock Band'). Our friends K. and C. lent us their AWESOME wigs and boots so we built our costumes around them.

This is S. and I book-ending my aunt, who's in town visiting for the weekend.
Technically, we were going as Cotton Candy and Black Licorice - but at some point in the evening we also thought we could pass as dolls...

Halloween

Our Halloween costumes...TARDIS and Dr. Who.
...due to getting the inspiration so late for our costumes, the TARDIS isn't as awesome as it could have been. The day of the party we kept coming up with ways to make it better - doors that open, lighted windows, etc...

They Just Took a TARDIS Out Of That Bar

Last night we went up to LA to a screening of the show "Heroes." Why? To watch Sean's friend David make his big screen debut as Eric Doyle aka The Puppetmaster. It was great! David's character was the highlight of the episode - his character is so creepy. But, David's one of the nicest people on the planet, so it was really hard to appreciate the creepiness of his character because I was just so excited that he got was on TV and got a lot of screen time! His character even has his own graphic novel!!

After the screening, we stayed for the burlesque show - or more specifically - the Villains Burlesque Show. I know - you're confused. David's wife produces a weekly burlesque show up in LA - so they they performed afterwards, each girl performing as a villain. It was awesome! Here are the highlights:

• Dr. Who and the Weeping Angels: Ack! I freaked out. The first performer not only performed as a villain from Dr. Who - but as a villain from one of my favorite episodes (the episode is incredibly tense, stressful and the writing's tight). Did I mention she built a TARDIS to use during her performance?
  
• PLUS! this served as the inspiration for my and Sean's Halloween costumes - stay tuned to see how they turned out...
• Cruella DeVil: Two words explain it all: puppy bath.
• Boris and Natasha: comedic burlesque

This Past Weekend

Bike ride
Saturday morning I went for a bike ride after Sean guilted me into it. He’s training for his 3rd marathon and Saturdays are his long, outdoor runs, which meant that I could either lay on the couch and clear out the DVR while he was training for his 3rd freakin’ marathon, or I could get off my a$$ and ride my bike. I chose the latter. It was great – I need to remember to bring my camera with me while I ride around Back Bay – there’s a lot of great pictures to be taken. Also, this girl’s in need of some padded bike shorts – my tush was sore after my 10 mile ride – please leave your suggestions in the comments section.

Yoga
I have discovered yoga and it is wonderful. I am kicking myself for ignoring my friend G.’s invitations to join her at her Sunday morning yoga classes for so long. Yoga is the cure for all that ails you.

Cookie baking
Our vows included something about me continuing to bake cookies…so when we both got a craving for chocolate chip cookies after watching a character TV bake them – I whipped up some cookies Sunday night. I am going to try my hardest to ignore the Tupperware container of cookies taunting me from the kitchen counter.

Wedding!

This weekend friends of ours got married. We both know the groom because Sean use to work with him and I use to live with him. And we both got to really know the bride once they started dating. Both are excellent, excellent people and we couldn't be happier for them.

There was a 2 hour break between the end of the wedding ceremony and the beginning of cocktails at the wedding, so Sean and I headed out for a pre-cocktail hour drink...

My two favorite loves.

Proof the bride and groom are good people.


Friends in front of Newport Harbor.

I think Sean is practicing for B.'s James Bond themed party in a few weeks.

Further proof the bride and groom are good people - dancing robots as centerpieces.

... and speaking of the bride and groom.

O. and his date spent the ENTIRE night kissing. The entire night - and every single camera at our table has proof. After a while the kissing got a bit old (for those of us forced to watch) - so we had to make things interesting...can you spot my husband?

One Sentence Review - Dandy Warhols

...better late than never...

When: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Where: Belly Up

Dandy Warhols : LOVE them - go see DiG! to find out why.

A Place to Bury Strangers: Their drummer is a machine; he went non-stop through the entire set - an absolute machine.