6 posts tagged “los angeles”

First, I want to state that I have this lofty goal to eliminate my credit card dependency. However, my compulsion to support certain 'why-are-these-people-still-under-the-radar?' musicians @ established music venues makes it quite difficult.

Tuesday night when I saw Ari Hest play at the Hotel Cafe I knew the online ticket purchase was worth it-- as are all my purchases, of course. The opener from Ireland, Declan O'Rourke, told the audience that this was his first time playing (or first tour playing?) in America. He had a great sound and one novelty song stands out. It's about an old black crow and it was highly entertaining because there was a fun song introduction and then part of the chorus was him cawing. Not counting that particular song, to me, live, his style was like an Irish version of Ari's so it shouldn't be too surprising if he gains a large following here fairly quickly.

"I can make you move against your will. Don’t it make you sad to lose control?" Broken Voices by Ari Hest

Ari was fantastic with his band, and played a bunch of songs from his early material and CD The Break In, plus newer songs from his project, 52, which included my favorite song, Broken Voices. At some point Amy Kuney came up to sing Cranberry Lake which she co-wrote and sang in a duet with Ari. That was great because I've been wanting to see her live for a while now too.

Ari's vocal ability is amazing. His tone ranges in his songs from baritone to falsetto with impressively flawless lung control. It bowls me over me every time I see him live.

I ran into @KristinJuel during the evening which is always refreshing. Sitting with her I discovered my new favorite bass player, Rob Calder, who has an interesting way of dancing to the beat while he plays.  Very entertaining to watch!

The only downer of the night is that there's a rule that non-flash photography is allowed in Hotel Cafe, but video recording is not. Kristin got busted for taking video with her digi cam at some point. That was too bad but at least they didn't confiscate her camera. She had also taken a bunch of still photos. Overall, it was a good night for live music.

"You're the song that I sing that I don't need to practice." from In the Creases by Amber Rubarth.
Tomorrow is Amber Rubarth's show @ The Mint-- http://themintla.com is their site. I refuse to hyperlink to it because it has music that auto-plays and defaults to the loudest volume setting. Way to facilitate an obnoxious user experience.

I love Amber's lyrical ambition and like Ari, she is now based in NY so I try to see her whenever she's playing here. Can't wait to hear her new songs and old ones again that I like. A lot.

mmm... Chocolate. Last Sunday was the 3rd Annual LA Chocolate Salon in Pasadena. I've finally come out of the sugar shock enough to share my experience but my hands are still too shaky to type it all out, figuratively speaking. So I'm going to do the next best thing.

Here's A Salon of Indulgence, Luxury and Chocolate, an article from the Occidental paper, Oxyweekly, which details the event in a way that was fairly close to my experience.

If you missed this event, the next Chocolate Salon is in San Francisco. Chocolate lovers planning to be in the Bay Area in March, don't miss that one. There will be as many as 50 chocolatiers in attendance to LA's 35-- which had one more sample table than this chocolate fan could handle.

Wednesday evening was the very first meeting of the Social Media Club, LA Chapter. Held at the Rubicon Project in Santa Monica, dozens of technologists, social media enthusiasts, technophiles, and PR attendees gathered over pizza and drinks to hash out the issue of what exactly defines social media. We had a live intro from Chris Heuer who also did a Q & A afterward. The agenda of the meeting group was to come with goals unique to LA and to address a way establishing standards with the other chapters.

I recently set up a Google alert for the term social media so I can keep better tabs on the subject as it appears in current media on the web. Here's an interesting link from MediaPost out of today's batch of links:

Calling all open mic aficionados, musically inclined locals, and visitors!  It's A Grind Coffeehouse in Santa Monica is debuting their very own open mic night and you are invited to come participate!

If you plan to play get there by 7PM!  Our show will begin at 7PM and go 'til 9PM.

Where is It's A Grind?
It's A Grind Coffeehouse is located on the southeast corner of 6th and Santa Monica Blvd.
602 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA
Make It's A Grind your myspace friend:
myspace.com/itsagrindsantamonica

How much does this cost?
It's free (along with free nearby street parking after 6pm). There will be plenty of light food and tasty beverages for purchase.

Never done this before?
Neither have we. It's our very first open mic night here too. Let's make history together!  Newbies are welcome here. This is a perfect venue to make your debut in a positive and supportive music community.   

Early weeknight bonus!
Advantage of a Monday open mic is that you've got plenty of nights left in the week to head to other music hot spots in LA, Santa Monica, Hollywood, or the valley.

Feel free to pass this message along to anyone you think may be interested.  See you Monday!

I've always had my reservations about super tall trees being right next to crowded residences. Not just because the roots tear up the cement sidewalks, making it unsafe for pedestrians-- especially at night-- as well as those in wheelchairs, on bikes, scooters, etc... not to mention the tree debris constantly falling onto whatever happens to parked on the street below. 

My main reservation comes from the suspicion that there was a good chance of something like this happening. After seeing the car damage up close, it's very possible that someone could have easily been killed in the street or in the building directly across from where the tree split. I really feel for the owner of the white Sentra. I don't think car insurance generally covers this kind of thing.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
   --Peter Drucker

I'd been looking forward to an event all day yesterday, but last night, I found myself caught in a bit of a mental pickle. I stood outside of a closed door and waffled on whether I should walk into a room full of people I didn't know.  What caused this little mental crisis? I'd walked past an event flier posted just outside the door and it dawned on me right then that I'd never RSVP'd!

It may sound silly now, but seeing that line for the event that was mere minutes from starting, stopped me in my tracks. I had no time to RSVP to the e-mail address by that point. What to do? Should I walk in and be an unannounced intruder, or just slip away quietly, promising to find out all requirements for the next event before attending. I turned to look down the hall. There weren't many people around. I looked through the little window in the door and I could see several people in the room, immersed in private conversations; none aware of me frozen in indecision less than five feet from the door. Don't break the rules. Nah, rules were made to be broken.  Am I going to just let this opportunity pass me by?

I waited a couple moments more, and I saw a guy walking toward me who looked like he was heading into the room. I smiled at the brilliant solution that instantly popped into my head and readied for action.  In unfamiliar situations, I'm am not the most assertive person, but I am working on that. In the meantime I am not too bad at coming up with ways to compensate for this. Case in point: My solution. I waited until this guy passed me and reached to open the door, then drawing momentum from his motion, I forced my feet to step up behind him to follow him in.

Yes, I managed to get myself into the room and had the door held open for me to boot. How was that for an unexpected welcome?  I was subsequently assured that showing up without having RSVP'd was fine. Plus, I got a chance to chat with a couple of people before the speaker of the evening arrived.

Equipped with a pen and my little blue notebook I took a few pages of notes and, of course, jotted down the quote above. But here is what I learned from attending the entertainment media talk given by Ashwin Navin, the founder of a little web tool known as Bit Torrent:

It's always going to be the hardest part; taking that first step. But if I can be the person who can find a way to step forward anyhow... Ooh child, things are going to get easier. Ooh child, things'll get brighter...

Peter Drucker's quote really resonated with me, so I Googled him (more of his quotes are here).  I really wish I'd heard of him while he was alive as I heartily agree with the basic ideas of his writing career spanning thirty-something books, as described in this wikipedia entry.

I'm really glad that I attended the event. Today, I happened to be on a deadline to submit a attributable quote of my choosing. You can probably guess which quote I chose.

Interview with Peter Drucker, leading management consultant
I can say with some certainty that either you'd either really like or really dislike his way of thought.  Personally, I really like his way of thinking and consider myself to be what he describes as a knowledge worker but you can see what I mean in this interview: Career Moves for 20-70