My Move To LA

The Unusual Problems of Gay Culture (West Hollywood)

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:24:41 -0800

What? Three blog posts in one day? I know! I've had ample time to sit and reflect today on account of only working three hours on Friday and having nothing else urgent to do. I was reminiscing today about my old stomping ground West Hollywood while I took a short walk down the street (of our new neighborhood). I took note that there wasn't ample trash or excrement littering literally every vacant nook and cranny along the sidewalk. It made me realize that for being considered such "clean" people the gays are really terribly messy. Well, the young ones who frequent Santa Monica Blvd. anyway. It also brought back my crowning memory of West Hollywood. To put it lightly: Having already been mostly moved in to the new place I went back to the West Hollywood apartment to do some laundry (on account of having no laundry facilities at our new house). While I was filling the first of the three washing machines in the apartment laundry I happened to get a really nice whiff of something foul. Not like dog shit or even baby shit foul. By comparison that would have been nice. This was steady protein diet, apple martini, menthol cigarette, huge load in the rectum kind of foul. I stood bewildered, checking both of my shoes, wondering where the hell I could have stepped in this kind of thing when I noticed that in the 30 inch space between the washing machine I was loading and the adjacent wall there was a huge pile of dookie. An enormous human dookie. Now, I hate to make a bad story worse but right through the center of this Guinness worthy dook were four very distinct finger scoop marks. Like the assailant had realized his horrendous mistake of crapping on the laundry room floor between a concrete wall and a Dadson washing machine at 2am and having his conscience get the better of him he grabbed a fistfull of his own excrement and then tried to place it in the laundry room trash can!! Again, hate to make an even worse story unreadable but it wasn't one of those open top Rubbermaid kind of trashcans. It was one of the domed top metal trashcans with the 10 by 10 inch self-closing springed flap. To make matters worse, it wasn't high quality either and the spring on this thing could probably have been used in place of the leaf springs in an old Cadillac so you had to fight with the flap in order to get anything inside of it. Imagine the dismay of the poor poopoo offender when he went to shove a portion of smelly, steaming gay goodtime reminder into the trashcan and he was met with the springed resistance of five men behind a small chromed aluminum door. Needless to say, not much of it ended up in the trash can. I think at this point the guy must have just pulled his pants up and exited the building to endure a chaffed and stinky walk home. Having rather witnessed the stoning of an innocent young girl I grabbed my wet soapy clothes, shoved them back in my bag and went home. Now, you might think this to just be a one off occurrence. Oh no. This was my third direct experience with the feces of a complete stranger in a place I shouldn't have found it. First time was in the sunken stairwell leading to the parking garage of our apartment and the second was in the same spot behind a bush that Oni (my dog) likes to poo. In either of these cases I would have dismissed them as being a crap left by a homeless person had it not been for the wrapper from an expensive coffee shop pastry and a gay bar coaster used in place of toilette paper. I still don't hate the gays and think for the most part they're all good people. I believe the world needs them but I'll be damned if I ever move to one of their neighborhoods again.

Patrick Vaughn Stump going solo

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:29:17 -0800

Ok, so technically this has almost nothing to do with Los Angeles but this is my blog and I'll post about whatever I want to... In college I discovered a struggling band that happened to make music I really identified with. The guys in the band where all about my age and I like to think if I had any kind of musical talent I would have been making music very similar to theirs. Many concerts later these same guys agreed to play our upcoming wedding but it happened to be just days before the release of their album that ended up going double platinum. Needless to say they didn't play our wedding and I don't blame them. You're going to think less of me but that band was Fall Out Boy. Since going mainstream and seducing millions of tween girls I have grown rather shameful when listening to their music. It's still some of the best I've ever heard mind you, it's just that I can't stand knowing I've got the same musical tastes as the girls who vote on TRL. For whatever it's worth, I can say that I did find them before they became teen idols. At any rate, Nicole and I have been waiting for the day they break up and our favorite member of the band goes solo. Well, today I learned that exactly that has happened and I couldn't be more excited:

(Unibrow) JONS

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:19:18 -0800

The JONS in Hollywood (La Brea & Fountain) is the best place in the whole city for cheap produce. Yeah, you have to pick through the rotten apples (literally) to find a good one but for a few cents a piece I'll dig all day. I'm not sure if all JONS are this way but this one seems to cater to the local ethnic crowd. They stock many kinds of Polish beer and Persian pickled cucumbers among countless other ethnic delicacies. While this is all great it isn't the most intriguing thing about this JONS. The most interesting aspect is the apparent requirement of a unibrow in order to work anywhere in the store but the checkout (there you have to be a disgruntled hispanic woman). I feel like a big enough a-hole just writing about this so I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of one of them. Guess you're just going to have to see for yourself.

The Oscars (wreck Hollywood traffic)

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:04:25 -0800

(just ate some buttered noodles. Mmmmmmmm nom nom nom!) For the past five days I've ridden my scooter down Cahuenga/Highland and witnessed true LA traffic. Why just the last five days you ask? Well, Hollywood Blvd. has been closed for the Oscars and apparently people here are so stuck in their routines that even though every news channel reports this closure they still try and either turn on to or continue on Hollywood Blvd. during this event. The first day I assumed people just hadn't caught the news. The second day I thought for sure they'll be avoiding this tomorrow. The third day I realized the majority of LA drivers are just ignorant cows. Whatever. I split the lanes on my scooter and get to work on time.

Los Angeles by iPhone

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:21:01 -0800

Please note Nicole's cool new Flickr project on the right hand side of the screen. She will be cataloging our daily LA (and sometimes other) adventures photographically with her iPhone. Why? Because low res is cool bitches!

Disappointed with the ArcLight Hollywood

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:38:00 -0800

As far as I could tell there were only three people in all of LA who hadn't seen Avatar in 3D: Nicole, myself and apparently check-stand-girl at Dick Blick Art Supply. Well, now it's only you check-stand-girl. Good luck. I'm going to spare you my personal review of Avatar as I think there are so many other reviews at this point that there really doesn't need to be another. What I will review however is the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood. If you can't tell by the title of this post it didn't go well. First, the wall of glass doors that face Sunset (which I would argue is the FRONT of the building) are exit only. There are no signs directing you the the entrance either (Tip: Look on the east side of the building). Then, when I give my ticket to the kid manning the ticket scanner it doesn't scan and he just gives it a little tear and hands it back to me. He never said a word! I've been to the movies probably over 100 times in my life and usually at this point you get some instruction on where to go. Lost, I asked him which way our theater was. His reply was that we could go either of two directions and find the theater. I guess this means that the ArcLight has only one screen. Weird for being one of the premier theaters in Hollywood. Nicole and I buy our soda and popcorn (only after discovering they do not sell medium sized anything) and continue on down the hall. We manage to find our assigned seats eventually and sit down. Five minutes later a group arrives and says that we're in their seats. Bewildered we all check our ticket stubs. Sure enough it appears the seats were double booked. I thought this mighty peculiar and was determined to get to the bottom of it when Nicole told me to not worry and that the movie was about to start. I guess rather than have you read about turning off your cell phone and things before the movie starts on screen the ArcLight pays some kid to come up and announce it. After his spiel about phones and babies he says enjoy the feature, Shutter Island. WTF? We were in the wrong place and our movie had already started! Pissed, I marched back to confront pimply-stoner-ticket-checker and sure enough there are at least 8 other screens at the ArcLight! They're just in a separately accessed part of the building and retard didn't bother to READ our ticket. Luckily we were seeing the 11:50am showing of Avatar and there weren't many people in the theater so we managed to get good seats. A little irked after spending $37.00 on two tickets and $10.00 on a small popcorn and large soda while getting poor customer service I get my parking stub validated in the little machine and arrive at the garage exit to discover that parking is still $2.00 with validation! To sum it all up, the ArcLight is much too Hollywood for me. I'd rather spend half the money at the mall cinema.

Rainbow over Hollywood

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:18:33 -0800

Crazy Rain

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:46:02 -0800

The forecast said it was going to rain Friday and Saturday but they predicted very little. Dang were they wrong. In the wee hours of the morning on Saturday I was awoken by one of the loudest thunder claps I've ever heard. There is hardly ever any lightning that accompanies the storms here in Southern California so when I heard the thunder I immediately thought it was our house breaking free from it's foundation and starting it's journey down the hill. After realizing the house was stationary and the thunder stopped rolling I peeked out the window and found it was raining so hard I could barely see across the back yard. The rain continued like that for at least another hour or two. I awoke to find that, as they had predicted after the massive station fire in August, there were mudslides. You can see some great pictures from the LA Times here. While the mudslides were scary I thought, "Well, at least they're 14 some miles away". I was wrong! There were significant mudslides on just the other side of Runyon Canyon 2.5 miles away! Luckily I think the topography of our neighborhood won't allow water or mud to collect like that but I guess you never know.

SoCal Style Back Home

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:30:49 -0800

In 1995 my father purchased a one-of-a-kind home on a small hill in Westminster, CO overlooking the neighboring city of Arvada and the plains beyond with the view only being interrupted by the Colorado Rockies. At the time of the purchase the house was so derelict that his girlfriend refused to move in. The first night I spent there was with my dad in my little sister's bunk bed which was set up in the living room because the section of the home with the bedrooms was falling away from the main house and the hallway connecting the two was collapsing. This was just one of the many problems it had. To say the least, the house was a mess. Even though there were many repairs, unexpected expenses and septic system backups my dad still never gave up on his little architectural gem. Perhaps it was his longing to always be an architect or the fact that there just aren't homes like that in Colorado. My dad's home was built in the 1950s California modern style. Low sloped (or flat) roofs with huge overhangs, floor to ceiling windows, excellent stone and wood craftsmanship, open floor plans and an appreciation for architectural aesthetic. In my 25 years in Colorado and outside of my father's home I only witnessed great 50s architectural design once and that was almost by accident. Perhaps another time I will get into the little house (like my father's) that could but my wife refused to live there. Anyway, I mention all of this because early into my unemployment I pulled out the copy I have of the original plans for my father's home. I just happened to get curious one day about the guys who designed it and wanted to see if I could find anything more about them. After a number of dead ends trying to use the firm name in a google search I went to the Colorado Division of Registrations where you can look up any CO licensed individual by name or license number. Here I struck gold. Even though the stamped license number on the plans circa 1954 didn't yield any results searching the last name of the second architect on the plans did! I now had a name: J Ralph Karlberg. License first issued October 22nd, 1953!! I knew immediately this had to be the guy. In subsequent google searches of his name I found there was one address and phone number that matched up on a number of different websites so I decided to give it a call and lo and behold Ralph Karlberg himself answered the phone! Even at 80+ years of age and in a retirement home he was still very spry and remembered desigining the home that my father purchased. Having grown up in his work I was curious to see if he had done any other homes in the Denver area and unfortunately outside of my dad's place there was only one. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Binna. He could only remember the client's name and general location of the home (Littleton). In my searches on the Binnas I found some existing phone numbers but it was also revealed that if they were still alive they'd be in their 90s. I figured that by this point I'd gone too far to quit so I called the number I found and left a message. One month later I get a call from Mr. and Mrs. Taylor saying the Binnas are long dead but that they look after their property. Unfortunately when I got the call I was in Burbank getting terrible cell reception and couldn't quite understand what I was being told. I gathered the Mrs. Taylor had spent some years as a child in the sister home to my father's and that even though it had been long demolished to make way for apartment buildings she might have some photos of it. I guess this was all a very long way to say that today I received those photos. I think more than anything it goes to show what you can find almost anything with a little time and effort and that sometimes you really can rely on the kindness of strangers:

Another LA blog!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:41:21 -0800

So while trying to figure out where the heck that Los Angeles park bench is featured in '500 Days of Summer' I found another Angeleno's blog and I have to say IT IS AWESOME. I think she writes for a living so her blog posts are amazing. Check out Kiwichicky here. Hopefully she'll get back to posting real soon!

Hollywood Wax Museum (sucks) and other Blvd attractions

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:51:26 -0800

Last weekend Nicole and I decided we hadn't done much of the Hollywood tourist stuff so we shuffled down to Hollywood Blvd. Unfortunately it was raining so there weren't many dressed up freaks walking the blvd but we managed to have a decent time. Lunch at CPK was decent ($55 for three people) and they validated our parking for the Hollywood & Highland shopping center so it only cost $2 for a few hours. After lunch I wanted to check out Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Upon arrival I was informed it was just a bunch of TV screens that tell you amazing things and I didn't want to pay the $15 a person to see stuff I've probably already seen on the internet. So then it was across the street to the Hollywood Wax Museum. Entry to the wax museum plus entry into the Guinness World Records building across the street cost $17 per person. Reasonable I guess. I immediately regretted my purchase when we entered the museum. Almost all of the wax figures were very poorly done with some of them being full sized molded plastic figures you could purchase at a costume store. Lame. I recommend paying the $25 and going down the street to the new one on Orange and Hollywood. All the figures look about as real as it gets there. Pics from Hollywood Wax Museum: After the wax museum we went across the street to Guinness. Also a lame tourist trap. Yeah, there's some interesting information but it's run down and most of the records outdated. The best part about it was the guy out front who looks and moves like an animatronic figure but when you get close enough to study him he scares you. If you're going to Hollywood Boulevard forget the lame attractions and go see the handprints, study the starwalk and check out the freaks in costume. If you want to know more about them watch "Confessions of a Superhero" before you go. Or maybe watch it after so you don't feel guilted into giving them money.

The Resurfacing of Architects

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:06:49 -0800

I was offered a job working with an architect on a 6 unit condominium today and I have an interview on Monday. Dare I say our economy is making a recovery? I hope so. When I met with some unemployed architects a while back they all looked pretty grim. I hope we can all find a job.

The Valley

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:04:28 -0800

To me it's the city on the other side of the mountain. To everyone else it's the San Fernando Valley or just The Valley. It was described to me by a 45 year resident of LA as being the place where the normal people live. Since our new place lies in the hills about halfway between Hollywood and Studio City I've been avoiding the not-so-normal people and shopping in Studio City. I must admit it's superior to the Hollywood side in terms of congestion and item price. I can actually push a shopping cart around the grocery store in the valley where I was restricted to hand baskets in Hollywood because there were so many people. Groceries are a hell of a lot cheaper when compared to the Pavillions in West Hollywood where we were shopping and parking isn't as big of a problem. From here out I think I'm going to try and avoid Hollywood whenever possible.

Early Craftsman Construction and Poor Repairs

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:40:21 -0800

While drinking my coffee on the porch this morning I noticed something a little unnerving. Rather than try to explain everything I've taken a few pictures with short explanations: This is the front of our house with the original porch and roof. Unlike today, back in the 1920s they revealed the structural members which became part of the style. In this case it's craftsman so take note of the low slope roof, exposed rafter tails and exposed supporting beams. I would guess this front section of roof weighs between 200 and 400 lbs. For clarity I have circled the location where the porch roof is attached to the house. Notice that small block under the 4x8 structural beam? Now, here's a view of the side of that block holding up the beam that supports the whole east side of the porch roof assembly. The block is secured to the window trim by two nails which you can see working their way out of the block over time. In addition, please note the 1/4" of contact remaining between the beam and block. No, I don't think there are any other attachments (but pray there are). If you press your face against the wall and look up you can see between the front of the house and the rear of the porch roof as seen here: In the event of an earthquake I don't think I'll be running out the front door.

L.A. 2010 for the Filosa's

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:45:30 -0800

The end of 2009 was quite stressful. Our initial plan to drive from LA to Roswell was nixed so we could spend the time and money on a move that went from craigslist to keys in our pocket in a just a couple days. We then tossed everything in boxes, rented a truck, called a few friends and moved in to our new place. Two weeks later the unpacking is finally ending and all our belongings seem to be finding appropriate homes (except for the laundry). 2010 looks like it's going to be a good year. The sun is shining here in LA and there seem to be more and more jobs appearing every day. Hopefully I can get one. Below please find some pictures of the new place taken with my iPhone. Yes, they suck but I wanted to get something up here. Living room with Nicole hard at work Dining and office. You can see the awesome desk I built in the corner Kitchen Bed Bathroom. Yes, that's the toilette in the doorway. No, it would never pass ANSI handicap standards. Yard with firepit Back of the house and Hollywood sign in the distance Oni's favorite poopoo place