a day of shakespeare

shakespeare was a pretty cool dude. he wrote great plays with complex plots, witty and sarcastically hilarious characters...and he did it with a frilly collar! no i'm kidding, he was a great writer who could use a multitude of characters to bring out the nuances of his handful of major characters (mercutio, paris, the capulets and montageus in romeo and juliet; ganymede/rosalind, touchstone, phebe, silvius in as you like it).

so what better way to spend a day then to spend it with shakespeare? i got the chance last weekend to watch the american ballet theatre's presentation of "romeo and juliet" at the dorothy chandler pavillion. i'm not a dancer (though i wish i was) and i don't really know much about ballet, but it was amazing for lack of a more amazing word. watching the girl playing juliet dance was like watching a cloud flutter around the stage. with the beautiful costumes and the ornate sets, watching a ballet presentation of romeo and juliet was like watching the emotions of the characters fly out of the dancers and fully understanding everything that is going on.


afterward, i watched an outdoor presentation of "as you like it" in front of the cathedral of our lady of the angels. it was such a contrast in performances. whereas "romeo and juliet" was filled with lavish costumes and glamorous sets, "as you like it" just had a stage and at max, five props. it was like watching a shakespeare play back in the time of shakespeare, when people didn't huge sets or props to understand a story, they just listened.
and it was so great to just listen to a story and watch the characters move with it. i really had to listen and to strain to listen because missing a line or two of dialogue could mean i miss the entire point of a scene, of the motive of a character, or the play completely. it sounds nerdy, but it was nice to just appreciate a play and appreciate good acting from actors who really filled out the shoes of their characters.

wow, i feel like i'm singing the praises of shakespeare but i guess i just had a good day spending time with the guy. me thinks i should do it more often.

the next food network star

the first picture is a seafood white-cream sauce pasta. the second picture is bruschetta. they look better in person. they also taste better in person.

i've been watching a lot of the food network this summer. i mean, A LOT. i'm down with the neelys, ready to throwdown bobby flay, cook everyday with giada and go barefoot with contessa (i mean, ina garten, whatever). it's getting to the point where i watch to learn new recipes as well as just to watch.

sometimes it's like subjecting myself to torture. here is delicious food but haha, you can't eat it! that's what inspired me this summer to cook and bake more. not only do i have the time, but i have so many random ingredients in my kitchen that i want/need to get rid of and i have the freedom and flexibility to cook whatever suits my fancy.

i think i cook for a couple different reasons. it's relaxing, one, to throw ingredients into a bowl (in a systemic order and way) and to get something out of it. it's fun, two, to make new things and to know that if i really had to, if it came to the point where a mob boss said i needed to cook him an authentic italian dinner or i would be done, that i could save myself and cook up an italian storm. and it's challenging, three, to make different types of things that i never thought i would be able to make, like tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets) and kimchi soup.

sometimes i wish i could go to culinary school and learn crazy new things about how to enhance flavours and work with spices and stuff. who knows, maybe in the future, after i become an award-winning journalist, i can settle into a quaint little town and open julia's bakery...julia's diner...julia's fancy, schmancy restaurant.

hmm, i'm going to work on names later...they all kinda sound the same...

santee alley

i went to the fashion district the other day. i had never been there though i heard a lot about it. and what i saw is not really what i expected. i don't really know what i expected but i was surprised that what i got was like a hong kong "mong kok", alleys and streets and rows upon rows of stalls selling everything from clothes to jewelery to shoes to accessories. and all at below average price.

there were tubes of cloth and barrels of ribbons, bulk supplies of dresses and trendy tops, boxes of purses and cartons of shoes. it was shopping...stripped of all the fancy, supermodel posters, pretty signs and nice locales with palm trees out front. it was real shopping.

i had to restrain myself from buying everything that looked cute or stylish. it was really hard because i knew the things that i would find here are cheaper than what i could find at the mall. so i only ended up buying one sundress. that's ok, that means i can go back to buy more later.

B3 - beach bonfire barbecue

sometimes three of the best things of los angeles can be summed up in words beginning with the letter B: beach, bonfire, barbecue.


ok fine, barbecues can be done anywhere i suppose...but isn't it much cooler to have a barbecue on the beach? with a bonfire? the correct answer is yes.

i wanted to have a cooler than normal barbecue on the beach, and thus the menu included steaks! and mashed potatoes! apple pie! guacamole! and much more, yum :) yes, i took forever to make (i will never forget how much butter we used, egads) but it was worth it when after splashing around, running around, fooling around on the guitar, we could all dig into mac and cheese, corn on the cob, and ribs!



the beach was surprising cold that day. the sky was overcast and it was windy until 2 pm! only in the afternoon did it actually start feeling like a nice summer day with the sun out and about and the water feeling warm and crisp against my skin. but the day also got broken up by the sound of airplanes taking off the ominous sight of airplanes disappearing into the clouds above our part of the beach.

i just realized that i didn't even take a picture of the bonfire...oh well...it was a good bonfire. very nice and orange and hot. it really kept us warm when the sun set and the cool ocean breezes finally hit us.

and i think that's when i realized (though i know and think it everyday): LA is awesome. it's a city of opposites. the rich (beverly hills) live with the poor (skid row). the artsy (the getty) live with the scientists (caltech). the young and hip (downtown LA) live with the old and wise (also downtown LA). the ocean hits the beach hits the city hits the mountains. i probably sound like a PSA for LA right now, but oh well. i live in one of the best cities in the world...cause i can have beach bonfire barbecues here.

the madness of mj

it was paparazzi madness but this time no one protested. fans, lovers of michael jackson's music clustered and held vigil near the king of pop's star in the walk of fame in the days after his untimely death.

flowers, cards, and posters almost completely covered mj's star; his name could barely be seen through the presents from adoring fans. trying to catch a glimpse of the star involved wrestling and pushing because everyone - local, tourist, fan - wanted to be close to it.


and in downtown LA, by the nokia theatre, crowds clustered to watch videos showcasing mj's life. the night before his memorial, hawkers were trying to sell tshirts with mj's face on them, his music was blasting from every car that passed by, and people were already lining up to be first in line for his memorial.

tastes like hawaii

loco moco and spam musubi...it's like a hawaiian party in my mouth! my friends and i decided to have a hawaiian dinner...just because we felt like it. my roommate made loco moco, which is like a big hamburger patty covered with gracy and topped with an egg. and while lots of people dislike spam because of the various animal parts that go into it, spam musubi makes one forget about what one is actually eating! the stickiness of the rice and saltiness of the seaweed and spam do quite a delectable dance in the mouth.

protests on the other side of the atlantic

this summer, revolutionary protests overflowed in iran. after results of an election announced mahmoud ahmadinejad had been re-elected president, voters didn't buy it...and they began to do something about it. they've brought their protests to the streets, called for a re-election, and tried to make their voices heard. citizens have been trying to inject democracy into the authoritarian state.

and on this side of the atlantic, iranian americans have been listening and supporting them. the pictures below are examples of the protests that have been happening in LA of iranian americans supporting their fellow iranians:

this picture was taken on wilshire boulevard east of the 405. protestors demonstrated consistently for about two weeks after the election, from the mid-afternoon into the evening. this particular picture was taken near midnight on a saturday night. protestors held signs on the sidewalk and when the light turned red, walked across the intersection egging on cars to honk.

this picture was taken outside the nokia theatre in downtown LA. protestors believe nokia provided the iranian government with surveillance technology that allows them to censor what iranians are desperately trying to tell the world. they believe the government is trying to withhold citizens' pictures, videos, and texts about what the revolution looks like and what is happening to those protestors.