INTRODUCTION I started researching this piece a while ago. I've been a fan of Mr. Rogers's music since I was a young child. It turned out to be surprisingly difficult to write because just as the depth of Mr. Rogers's television program wasn't always appreciated, the brilliance of his music has largely been overlooked. You … Continue reading The Music of Mr. Rogers
California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Big Bear City
After eleven years of exploring Los Angeles County, and eight of exploring Orange County, I finally explored elsewhere in Southern California for California Fool's Gold a week ago, when I visited the small San Bernardino County town of Big Bear City with my friend, Mike. We first stopped at Running Springs for a bathroom … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Big Bear City
Mini-Mallism — What’s in a Name?
I might be the only person who's tickled by mini-malls with names. The idea, I assume, is to create a sense of space... albeit for a place in which no one thinks of as a space. Aside from panhandlers, pimps, pushers, and prostitutes; I doubt that anyone has ever made a day of hanging out at … Continue reading Mini-Mallism — What’s in a Name?
California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Westwood
INTRODUCTION TO WESTWOOD Westwood is a neighborhood in Los Angeles’s Westside. It’s widely known for being home to the University of California, Los Angeles although locally it's almost equally well known for its small shopping district, Westwood Village. People who've lived in Los Angeles longer than I are prone to speaking about Westwood with an elegiac tone normally … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Westwood
Los Angeles Linguistics Part 2: Regional Differences
Most metropolitan areas -- at least the ones I'm familiar with -- are divided both into neighborhoods and larger, multi-neighborhood administrative divisions or regions. Paris has its arrondissements, New York City its boroughs, Busan and Seoul have gu (구), Taipei has qū (區), St. Louis and New Orleans both have wards, Mexico City has municipios, and on. Their names vary, then, but the concept is generally the … Continue reading Los Angeles Linguistics Part 2: Regional Differences
Swinging Doors — Los Angeles Train Pub Crawl
The train-enabled bar crawl is surely as old as the train itself. The first public transit line in Los Angeles was the Spring and West 6th Street Railroad, a railway founded in 1874 which served Downtown. Surely some bright 19th Century Angeleno had the brilliant idea of using the horse-drawn railcars to carry them from saloon … Continue reading Swinging Doors — Los Angeles Train Pub Crawl
Happy Lunar New Year’s Eve
Tonight is Lunar New Year's Eve in the Americas. It's already New Year's Day in Asia so I suppose I should've posted this earlier since a good number of my readers are in (descending order to gently if unlikely stoke a bit of competition) Japan, the Philippines, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, … Continue reading Happy Lunar New Year’s Eve
