Los Angeles, CA

As I mentioned yesterday, I grew up in the small town of Downey, California, where a surprising lot of big things happened. When I was still in elementary school we had Rockwell [turned Boeing, now Downey Studios], the space shuttle building company that supported our schools, and in return us band geeks would go over to Rockwell every few months and perform (badly) during their lunch breaks and they’d feed us pizza. We got to walk through a life-sized model of the space shuttle and play with the giant booster rockets that always scared me, and it was awesome. My AP English teacher my senior year of high school claimed that because of Rockwell, Russia had 20 megatons of nuclear warheads aimed at Downey, but I still don’t know if I believe that.

Downey also had Johnie’s Broiler, a famous greasy spoon that you may not have been to yourself, but it’s a pretty safe bet you’ve seen it before. In the 90s, while I still lived in Downey, the diner was home to quite a few film crews, who used the location as a retro hometown diner. What’s Love Got To Do With It was filmed there, and I still remember when the X Files crew came to town to film an episode (it’s the Groundhog Day-type episode, I’m too lazy to look up the title right now), because the X Files was my favourite TV show EVER and I couldn’t believe that Mulder and Scully were hanging out about a mile away from my house.

Sadly, at the beginning of the year most of Johnie’s Broiler was illegally demolished by its greedy owner before the entire city intervened on the building’s behalf. Considered a landmark, every single Downey resident was appalled that this piece of history was going to be paved over for a used car lot, or whatever ugly, useless thing the owner was planning to put in. All that remains of the once famous diner is the iconic fat boy sign and a pile of splintered timber and rubble. I was in town over the holidays and drove past Johnie’s by accident, and it was so saddening to see that fenced off pile of debris just sitting there sadly. It may have looked unloved at the time, but people still care. Downey’s city council voted to let the moratorium on construction at the site expire, and vowed that they would work closely with the current owner and any future investors to carefully restore Johnie’s to its former glory. There’s hope for old Johnie’s yet! I can’t wait to see what it’ll look like when it’s redone, and I hope it looks as timeless and slightly seedy as it did when I went. (The food wasn’t all that great, but I’m a vegetarian and not much one for greasy spoons. Don’t believe a word I say.)

To read more about what’s in store for Johnie’s, check out the Press-Telegram (the newspaper I grew up reading), and Eric Pierce’s blog for more backstory on the Johnie’s brouhaha from the point of view of a Downey resident.

Here’s a piece of news I can really get behind: L.A. officials are currently debating over a new law that would limit the size of new and rebuilt homes to keep the new house in proportion of other houses in the neighborhood and the home’s lot size. Over Thanksgiving weekend I drove around my old neighborhood of Downey and was appalled by the number of gaudy new McMansions slowly taking over the cute bungalows and sprawling ranch houses that had characterized the city and its overwhelming 50s style. These ugly giant Cracker Jack boxes are dull, utterly characterless, and take up every available inch of the lot, leaving no room for a yard or any other outside beauty. The architectural design is completely lacking, too. Most of the time it’s a giant box with peach stucco slathered over it — how much did you get paid to “design” that? Those hideous monstrosities are ruining the character of the city and the neighborhoods and have the added bonus of being too expensive for anyone but drug dealers to buy in this market. (And I wish I was overexaggerating or joking when I say that, but the Downey police force themselves said it.) Why would they keep building houses no one can afford to buy?

Anyway, I’m glad I’m not the only one complaining over these nasty things. As early as January of 2008 we could see new laws coming through that would affect over 100,000 housing lots, but to some Angelinos this still isn’t enough. Residents keen on preserving the looks of their neighborhoods point out that privacy and existing views are another factor that should be seriously considered. Most people buy houses and get out of the rental market so they have more privacy and a better home life than they would in a shoebox apartment or a tiny rental house, but if they’re powerless to stop their greedy neighbors from throwing up a McMansion that would literally block out the sun, then what happens to all of their own hard work?

Read more about the new proposals and what residents have to say here.

As of November 3rd, you can now drive all the way up to the Griffith Observatory without making a reservation in advance. Before, you had to call ahead and make a reservation just to visit the observatory, taking the fun out of wandering around and just deciding to hang out there. (That was most of the fun of going!) But now that the building has been open for a year, during which time 650,000 people have visited, the observatory is now completely open to the public to show up any time they want. They will now have parking attendants, as well, to help deal with the extremely limited parking and prevent any traffic jams from occurring. The mayor, in his press release about the unrestricted access to the observatory, still strongly encourages people to either carpool or take a cab up to the observatory if they must use a car, or else walk or ride a bike up there. He also points out that the numerous hiking trails around Griffith Observatory are fully open, if you felt the need to get a little more exercise when you’re in the area.

This also means that the complimentary shuttle service, which has been in operation since the grand reopening last November, will stop. This was done mainly to keep the disruption of traffic in the nearby neighborhoods at a minimum, the mayor said, but now that things are returning to normal and there will be full-time parking attendants to guide drivers to either the observatory’s parking lot or nearby street parking, traffic should still not be a problem.

Now that the idea is in your head, stop by if you’re in the neighborhood! I only have happy memories of Griffith Observatory as a kid, and that’s saying something, judging by the number of dull cultural things I’d been dragged to all my life. Besides, they have a cool new show with Leonard Nimoy (sigh) hosting that sounds really awesome. It’s every hour on the hour and talks about the history and renovation of the observatory.

The observatory is open every day but Mondays, and they strongly encourage you to try and come on weekdays, when it’s less crowded. Now go!

I know that Wicked has been at the Pantages for a little while now, but c’mon, it’s Wicked! The book is incredible and the musical is fantastic, and my friends and I spent about a year after it came out re-enacting the entire bleedin’ show. It’s great. The use of color is beautiful and the costumes and sets are elaborate and well-done, and it’s a strong, female-led cast. There’s even a pretty blonde, for the guys in the audience.

Anyway, I thought I’d try and encourage more people to go to the theatre once in a while, because there’s nothing quite like seeing a live show. While searching for some discounted tickets, I found a lot of ticket brokers willing to sell tickets to any showing of Wicked, but most were actually charging more than the box office prices. Um, isn’t that the whole point of shopping around, so you can find cheaper tickets? Anyway, after some digging I came across Ticket Liquidator, who actually offer a significant discount on Pantages tickets. (The link will take you directly to the Wicked L.A. tickets page). If you’re okay with seeing a show on a weeknight, preferably Tuesday through Thursday (because all theatres are dark Mondays), then you could actually save a pretty chunk of change. I remember my parents used to do a trick as well, where they would wait at the Will Call window and snatch up any last minute tickets that weren’t claimed, but I’m not sure if you save any money that way. That trick would probably work a lot better at a sold-out show, and if you didn’t mind possibly sitting apart from some members of your party.

And for those of you who have managed to miss hearing about Wicked until now, here’s a brief synopsis for you: Wicked is the story behind the popular Wizard of Oz series, focusing not on Dorothy, but on a hidden and unlikely friendship between a green-skinned girl named Elphaba, whom many considered to be a bad witch based on her skin color, and Galinda, a pretty farm girl with high aspirations. Galinda takes to Elphaba, despite the fact that Elphaba insists on shortening Galinda to Glinda, which everyone eventually does. Glinda tries to pretty up and feminize Elphaba, while Elphaba is busy figuring what is happening to the Animal (talking Animal people) population in Oz and what corruption lies in the Wizard’s government. Along the way both girls fall for handsome Fiyero, and this along with the volatile political scene culminate in tragedy.

It’s not your usual love triangle, that’s for sure! I’m usually very picky about my musicals, but I have fallen hard for Wicked and would highly recommend it to anyone. Just try it!

(l-r): Eden Espinosa portrays Elphaba, and Megan Hilty plays Glinda

Disclaimer: I am also partial to Wicked because my cousin, Erin Mackey, is currently playing Glinda in the Chicago production.

The best theatre to go to on an opening night of a really fun movie is The Vista (4473 Sunset Dr
Los Angeles, CA). I’ve been there for the opening of Snakes On a Plane, Pirates of the Caribbean II, and 300 and all three times it was just the movie-going experience that I was hoping for: a fun, enthusiastic crowd minus the obnoxiousness that you can expect from say, Mann Chinese 6.

An added bonus: tickets are $8 bucks for an evening showing and the front door usher is usually in costume in the spirit of the opening flick.

On June 19th, one of the best spaghetti places in LA is going to be closing it’s doors and will eventually become part of a local project which will result in 38,000 sq. feet of office space, 125 condos, and 10,000 sq. feet of retail locations.

This marks just another Hollywood landmark being torn down, along with the Tiki Bar, and Trader Vic’s which met their end not too long ago.

The Old Spaghetti Factory has many locations around the United States. The original restaurant opened it’s doors in Portland Oregon on January 10th of 1969. Sales for the first night were considered a “complete bust” at $171.80, but the Old Spaghetti Factory only got better from there on. Within the week, the store was making $900 a night, and by the end of the year, had reached $400,000. By 1970, owner Guss Dussin started two more restaurants with the same name, and today, The Old Spaghetti Factory has become an international restaurant that serves over 10 million customers a year.

When the Hollywood location closes down on June 19th, there will still be 5 more So. Cal locations, including Duarte, Riverside, and Fullerton, but the Hollywood location will be sorely missed by many.

I highly recommend checking this place out if you already haven’t, and going at least one last time before it’s too late.

The Old Spaghetti Factory is located at 5939 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028.

You can view the restaurant menu and hours on the Old Spaghetti Factory website here.