The Curtain Of Light
Beckoning Cats, Los Feliz
Originally uploaded by Ghostly Penguin Display. The LA trip was a success. We arrived in town around 10 pm on Friday and went straightaway to Green Leaves for vegan pho and fake chicken and pancakes, an LA specialty.
Saturday morning we went for a hike in Griffith Park (Karla calls that photo "Red Bull without a cause") where you can see almost all of LA except that you really can't see anything but smog. Then we visited to the world famous Griffith Park Observatory which was restored in 2002 and now contains an entire lower level dedicated to Leonard Nimoy. We scoured the vintage stores on Melrose for a merch box and then turned our attention to Echo Park where we discovered The Echo Park Time Travel Mart. As you can probably guess from the name, it sells nothing but supplies for time travelers.
Next stop: California Vegan on Sunset. They also feature the famous LA "fake chicken and pancakes", but their selection of Thai items is even better.
The main reason I suggested making the trip down to LA was that Splitsville was playing at the Knitting Factory. They're one of my all time favorite bands and maybe the only one I would drive 6 hours to see. They hadn't played in California in 9 years, but they were better than ever.
Sunday we went to the Santa Monica Pier and McCabe's Guitar Shop where Karla & Angela found another animal friend. The last fake-meat place on our agenda was Real Food Daily; expensive but worth it. Oh, and we did finally find a cool merch box; one that was made in Sweden and based on a children's literature character named Emil something-or-other who has a horse and a pig.
We couldn't go all the way to LA without doing at least one Corner Laughers promotional activity, so goldenmoonbear arranged an in-studio appearance on KPFK's Ukulele Spotlight. It's supposed to air at the end of August and will be available online after that.
Here's the great thing about driving a Prius: we left LA on Sunday evening with a full tank of gas; 6 hours and 360 miles later we pulled into our driveway in Redwood City...and there was still 1/3 of a tank left.