Take It Easy This Weekend

I'll be thinking of you.

Bergamot Station - Santa Monica

In an old tram yard.

bathed in seaside light.

A place for art.  Artists.

And arty moments.

I've posted about Hiromi Papers at Bergamot Station here.  Before.

And along those paper-y lines, an installation late last summer by Christina Kim.

Otherwise and perhaps best known as the designer/proprietress of Dosa.

An L.A. based clothing atelier with arty-south-Asian flavors.

The gift shop at this art center is small but very original.

And apparently since this is the West, there is a freewheeling assortment of exhibits

and sale rooms which encompass mid-20th century American kitsch, lots of photography,

some secret-ish actual art-making spaces, the usual galleries,

arty banks of mail boxes

to-die-for (private) arty staying spaces for optimal shmoozing and per-oo-zhing.

The funky serves as a palate cleanser.

And prelude to the fantastical and the luxe.

There is humour - more than you might see in comparable places in NYC where one takes oneself so seriously.  (Cuz if you don't who will?)

And yes did I say mid-century kitsch?  (Can't get away from it!)

Mellifluously mixed avec hmmmmm.....African funerary vessels (yes those animals)

and trenchant global satire?

Despots?  Anyone?

And Respites?  The good news is it's all always a bit of all-sorts.  A bit everywhere.

Bergamot Station will remind you.  Including the small-but-perfectly-formed Santa Monica Museum of Art.  You didn't know it existed, did you?   Check it out!

Other Houses, Other 'Hoods

Another weekend, another walk.  To:  Atwater Village

a tiny little community

whose most distinguishing features might be these houses,

the fact that the "little people" who played the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz

lived, and have left a legacy here

and lately, Proof.  A delicious bakery that I posted about here.

 O.K., so how was the weekend?

Wacko - Los Angeles

I've done a couple of wordy posts this week but for the weekend I'll just leave you with something brief.

Here's one of the best shopping options in Los Feliz (which featured in my last post).

Wacko, The Soap Plant, La Luz de Jesus Gallery are all rolled into this

wonderful space on Hollywood Boulevard.

It is a great resource for all those creative movie people.

And very life affirming for all those of us

who forever find themselves gravitating

towards a little something different.

 How's the weekend so far?  Hope it's good!

Finally Los Feliz!

In the words of that old Hollywood movie heroine........

There's no place like HOME.

And if "Home" is unquestionably in Los Feliz, it might be where you need to be.  When the sun is shining....or in the rain, when half of your meal is free.....because there's nowhere else to eat but on this patio.  (No taking your plate inside.)

Unless you want to duck into the Vintage Clothing store that adjoins the restaurant and add some pizzazz to your ensemble.   You might leave thinking that you're too cool for school.  Or even too cool for HOME, now, and it's time to venture out and show yourself off a little bit....to appreciative eyes......

That would mean popping conveniently just across the street to the Alcove.  And settling in for a seriously long session of people watching.  This might be THE place to be in Los Feliz Village and if you're a girl,  to do a wide-ranging assessment of your romantic prospect-a-bilities.  Since, this being Los Feliz, you will be spoilt for choice if you are looking for a man.  In this neighborhood the "XY" to "XX" chromosome ratio is a robust 7-1.  The last time somebody counted.

(Sansui Japanese)

I've posted pictures of housing in this 'hood here and here.....but finally

(Won a James Beard Award)

you're being clued in to where to eat.  To shop a little.

To rub shoulders with CELEBRITIES.  Little Dom's is a favorite of younger, hipper H'wood if you're keen to sneak looks at what Cameron Diaz, the Gyllenhalls, Michael Cera or Rashida Jones are dining on.  It has a very sepia styled old-school interior and embracing banquettes that you will find irresistible, along with its oyster po-boys and espresso baked alaskas.....reservations ESSENTIAL at dinner.  Any night of the week.

Neighborhood haunt.  Plain and simple.  Cocina Mexicana.

Personally, I wouldn't come here for the food.  It's just fine.  But it is in the center of all the action on this not quite but trying hard Boul'Miche flavored block......

lined with Bohemian walkups,

hipster t-shirt shops, and upstart theater companies,

retro lounges

indie bookstores, vintage cinemas

(Skylight Books)

and attitudinal mashups.

Fred 62 was one of the Paradis family's very first discoveries in the new hood.  It's satisfyingly 50's diner style in a pumped up, vinyl-Barney kind of way.  But I'm talking mashups?  All the Latino waiters wear black t-shirts from Y-Que (above) proclaiming witty-ironical truths like: "Jesus is our Dishwasher", with shiny-high Latino quiffs-that-don't-quit, the waitresses in their Doc Martens, torn black stockings and black mini-skirts are channeling Madonna somewhere in the Holiday/Lucky Star 1982 era.

It is open ALL HOURS

and their vegetarian breakfast enchilada is THE BIZ!

If you're into something slightly more formal but accordingly, expensive and noisy, "Vermont" is for you.  A very Hollywood-in-2013 bar in its rear with a giant tree growing through the middle of it might be your style if you're the cocktail type.....but I can't really tell you much else about it because if I find my way to this part of the neighborhood.....

This is where I stay.

It took me awhile, but there you have it!  (Some of these pictures are a couple years old already!) 

A little - and long overdue - tour of Los Feliz Village, i.e., Vermont and Hillhurst St. from Mlle Paradis......the woman who has everything!   When she looks down her hill over this part of L.A.

I'm not really exaggerating, am I?