Los Angeles, CA

If you need to send a gift, Larchmont Village is a great place to do your gift shopping.  A few years ago I sent my mother some fine Belgium chocolates and flowers arranged in a beautiful antique, pitcher-shaped vase from Leonidas (201 N. Larchmont Blvd.) for Mother’s Day.  She loved it and to this day uses the vase as a pitcher to water all her flowers.   Leonidas is great because they have a wonderful selection of confections and special gift packages on holidays, and also for a reasonable fee will gift wrap and ship your gifts for you. 

Another place on Larchmont that’s great for gift shopping is Chevalier Bookstore (126 N. Larchmont).   This morning I shopped for my three-year-old nephew’s birthday gift in Chevalier’s children’s annex.  The wonderful lady who works there was full of excellent suggestions.  With her assistance I settled on an anthology of classic children’s stories.   At the check out desk I had the book gift wrapped in charming children’s themed wrapping paper and shipped for an extra fee of $9.00. 

 Now I can sit back and not worry about when I’m going to go to the post office during my busy week, and feel satisfied that I picked out a really great gift for my little loved on. 

Author Jim Pascoe will be discussing and signing copies of his kid-appropriate, fantasy manga Undertown Volume 1 tomorrow. Kudos to all who are responsible in getting our youth’s eyes away from computer screens and onto the pages of creative expression.

Date: Saturday August 11, 2007
Where: Mystery Book Store
1036 C-Broxton Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90024
Time: 1:00 PM

This is part one of ‘Surviving the Spread’ - my ongoing survival guide to daily life in La La Land. 

So I work in Santa Monica and live in Los Feliz.   My commute one way is never less than a full hour.  So that’s two hours every day where I’m trapped in my car at a slow crawl.  I have a very strong feeling that somewhere in a foreign land, very bad people are sticking hostages in a small car at 5mph and successfully extracting top secret information. 

After reading Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, I’ve gained some insight on how to turn my daily torture into a manageable experience.   I can either bang my head against my steering wheel or find ways to engage and challenge my mind with distractions from my unpleasant situation.  

So this is where I finally realize why podcasts are such a glorious invention.   On the weekend, I’ve been putting together playlists to listen to during my commute. 

Right now I’m totally obsessed with web 2.0, writing, and alternative comedy.  Here are some of the podcasts in my rotation:

Guys With Feelings

Net@Nite

The Blog Herald

This American Life

KCRW’s The Business

Creative Screenwriting 

We’re Both Right

…I may just throw in a podcast on learning Italian since I may be going to Italy in the fall…

This is so weird to say….but I’m actually starting to love my commute, not to mention I’m listening to podcasts all day at work, too.

*Sigh*  Figures.  Just when I thought I was finally getting it together I’ve turned into a total podhead.