sawtelle is a weird name for a street
I'm doing a cabaret tomorrow night on Sawtelle & Venice over in West LA. The performance was organized by friends of my friend Natalie, who plays Roberta in ZANNA DON'T, and I'm quite excited since I rarely get to sing these days outside of church gigs. The venue is a converted hair salon now simply called "Fanatic Salon." It's quite comfy...but on my way there I was thinking how funny a lot of the street names in LA can be. Sawtelle definitely is one of the top puzzlers out there.
Tonight I decided to figure out from where the name "Sawtelle" originated. Thanks to a quick Wikipedia search, I discovered that Sawtelle used to be an independent town, but became the fourth city (after Wilmington, San Pedro and Hollywood) to join Los Angeles back in 1922. Who knew?
This reminded me...just a few weeks ago I was talking to a Houston, TX, native about how he felt about the pronunciation of "Houston Street" in NYC ("how-stun"). I remember expecting him to chuckle at the discrepancy but instead he pointedly remarked that it was probably named after a different Houston. Sure enough, it was actually named "Houstoun Street" (the current spelling is apparently a corruption, as it is named after a William Houstoun, who was a delegate to the continental congress from Georgia). This was in 1808...long before the fame of Sam Houston (after whom the city in Texas was named).
Not sure how this history lesson counts as a livejournal post, but I thought I'd share some random research with whomever was reading!
Tonight I dropped by the grocery store between rehearsal and research. I am ALWAYS in the grocery store at odd, late hours. In fact, there was a period of time in May-June where I could only go to Vons one day a week because of my schedule and early closing hours (10p) due to remodeling. I kind of enjoy being able to wander the aisles in peace, without being mowed down by ladies with huge shopping carts loaded with a giant alphabetized and/or categorized list's bounty of groceries. For me, it lets me spend time staring at the ridiculous amount of choices for each item I want to purchase.
For example, tonight I stared at the dozen or so different flavors of sugar free, caffeine free, sodium free soda that I'm completely addicted to. To be honest, I could probably drink any single flavor, but having so many to choose from gives me the impression that I have to employ some system of eliminating some varieties and favoring others, lest I think myself lazy! Every time I catch myself spending an inordinate amount of time with such trivial decisions, I have to laugh a little bit, but at the same time, I feel like a lot of life is full of very similar decisions that sometimes surprise us with their immense repercussions. I could spend a lot of time trying to plan every detail and actively "make" every decision with forethought...but it seems like an awful waste of energy. Each little daily decision - taking a certain gig, going to a party, sleeping a little later, doing laundry on Tuesday instead of Wednesday - can actually make a huge difference in the course of my life. But most of them won't, so I guess my conclusion is that I might as well enjoy the ride instead of trying to drive from the back seat. I feel like the ride will be more exciting that way...
Tonight I decided to figure out from where the name "Sawtelle" originated. Thanks to a quick Wikipedia search, I discovered that Sawtelle used to be an independent town, but became the fourth city (after Wilmington, San Pedro and Hollywood) to join Los Angeles back in 1922. Who knew?
This reminded me...just a few weeks ago I was talking to a Houston, TX, native about how he felt about the pronunciation of "Houston Street" in NYC ("how-stun"). I remember expecting him to chuckle at the discrepancy but instead he pointedly remarked that it was probably named after a different Houston. Sure enough, it was actually named "Houstoun Street" (the current spelling is apparently a corruption, as it is named after a William Houstoun, who was a delegate to the continental congress from Georgia). This was in 1808...long before the fame of Sam Houston (after whom the city in Texas was named).
Not sure how this history lesson counts as a livejournal post, but I thought I'd share some random research with whomever was reading!
Tonight I dropped by the grocery store between rehearsal and research. I am ALWAYS in the grocery store at odd, late hours. In fact, there was a period of time in May-June where I could only go to Vons one day a week because of my schedule and early closing hours (10p) due to remodeling. I kind of enjoy being able to wander the aisles in peace, without being mowed down by ladies with huge shopping carts loaded with a giant alphabetized and/or categorized list's bounty of groceries. For me, it lets me spend time staring at the ridiculous amount of choices for each item I want to purchase.
For example, tonight I stared at the dozen or so different flavors of sugar free, caffeine free, sodium free soda that I'm completely addicted to. To be honest, I could probably drink any single flavor, but having so many to choose from gives me the impression that I have to employ some system of eliminating some varieties and favoring others, lest I think myself lazy! Every time I catch myself spending an inordinate amount of time with such trivial decisions, I have to laugh a little bit, but at the same time, I feel like a lot of life is full of very similar decisions that sometimes surprise us with their immense repercussions. I could spend a lot of time trying to plan every detail and actively "make" every decision with forethought...but it seems like an awful waste of energy. Each little daily decision - taking a certain gig, going to a party, sleeping a little later, doing laundry on Tuesday instead of Wednesday - can actually make a huge difference in the course of my life. But most of them won't, so I guess my conclusion is that I might as well enjoy the ride instead of trying to drive from the back seat. I feel like the ride will be more exciting that way...