| December 17, 2009 | 3 Unique Christmas Traditions in Los Angeles |
 Some people might think that it wouldn't feel like Christmas living in Los Angeles (especially for someone who was born and raised in New England), but I'm here to tell you that LA, particularly the West Side, has its own unique and fun holiday traditions.Last week, Chris and I rode our bikes to Santa Monica to see the Christmas tree made out of shopping carts. It's called "The Bright Side." and it's been put together by artist Anthony Schmitt at the Edgemar shopping area on Main Street for the past 14 years. It's a great piece of public art because of its multiple meanings; it not only makes you consider excessive holiday consumerism, it makes you think about homelessness at the holidays. Check out my photoset of the Shopping Cart Tree. This was our third Christmas living in Marina del Rey, and our third year heading to Fisherman's Village to check out the Marina's holiday boat parade. The parade has been happening for 47 years, since 1963 before the marina itself was actually completed.  We went to view the Marina del Rey Boat Parade with Devora and Ethan, who had been living in a houseboat on the Marina for the month of December. This year the boat parade theme was "Holiday in paradise," and the best boat was definitely the "Cheeseburger in Paradise." It played the Jimmy Buffet song, and the burger actually opened up and then the bottle of ketchup poured in. It was hysterical. Check out the full photoset from this year's Marina del Rey Boat Parade, and then see my photos from the Marina del Rey Boat Parade 2008.  Just one day after the Marina del Rey Holiday boat parade, Chris and I biked to the Venice Canals Holiday Boat parade and met Roshanna there. The Venice Canals boat parade has been going on since the late 1970s or early 1980s. This year, our favorite boats included the Venice trolley, the castle ship, and the viking ship. There were also numerous Santas throwing candy from their canoes and paddle boats. Check out the full photoset from this year's Venice Canals Boat Parade and then, see our photos from the Venice Canal Boat Parade last year. Labels: christmas, holidays, la, losangeles, venice posted by Jess Barron @ 6:55 AM 
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| December 15, 2008 | Venice Canals Holiday Boat Parade 2008 |
 Chris and I rode our bikes over to the canals to see the holiday boat parade. (Along with the Marina del Rey boat parade, it's one of the annual Westside traditions.) We locked our bikes on Washington, and we saw this gal carrying a large cardboard train and rushing down toward the canals. "Is that where it starts?" she asked us, pointing to a bunch of people underneath one of the bridges. We told her that we thought it was, and she rushed along the pathway. We followed her, and when she arrived a whole floating vessel of 20 or so people began cheering.  They were the "Island of Misfit Toys," and they needed their choo-choo train, and she was the train. She put the cardboard train around her body and hopped aboard.Other memorable boats: *'Jaws' boat, complete with (remote control?) shark that followed them around *S.S. Minnow with the entire cast of Gilligan's Island aboard. It really looked like it was sinking. Also, check out this set that Chris took with his digital Leica -- they're way more beautiful! Labels: holidays, la, losangeles, venice posted by Jess Barron @ 10:40 AM
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| Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade 2008 |
 Along with the Venice Canals boat parade,the Marina del Rey Boat Parade is an annual holiday tradition in our 'hood. Chris, Paula, Thoryn, and I headed over to Fisherman's Village to grab drinks at the original El Torito and watch the Marina del Rey Holiday boat parade. Our favorite boat this year was the Venice Boat. The videos came out a lot better than the photos for me this year. Here's a video I posted to Vimeo of us greeting one of the many Santa Clauses. (We wondered how the parents of Marina del Rey explained this to their kids -- the proliferation of boat-borne Santas converging on the Marina...  Was it a nautical North Pole cloning disaster?) And here's some video of our fave, the Venice Boat passing by.The entries this year weren't quite as elaborate as they were in 2007. A sign of the economy, perhaps, and also I should point out that last year's grand prize was an all-expense paid trip to Tokyo, Japan and this year the grand prize was a Southwest Airlines round-trip ticket to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Also, check out this set that Chris took with his digital Leica -- they're way better. Labels: holidays, la, losangeles, venice posted by Jess Barron @ 9:45 AM
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| November 16, 2008 | Bike Ride With Smoky Skies |
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Yesterday we rode our bikes on the bike path from Marina del Rey to Manhattan Beach. The smoke from the fires spread out from the O.C. over Manhattan Beach and covered the sun, making the sky an orange-y brown. Here's a (possibly more accurate) capture of the sky's color taken with my Canon digicam. We were biking and ash was falling from the sky like snowflakes, getting into our eyes, our noses, and in our mouths. It was apocalyptic feeling. There is a beached sailboat that ran aground, and it reminded me of the scene in Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." It didn't stop us from getting fish tacos at Wahoo's (and ice cream at Manhattan Beach Creamery for desert). Labels: la, losangeles posted by Jess Barron @ 11:26 AM
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| November 3, 2008 | Dia de Los Muertos 2008 |
 Selena, Carlos, Declan, Chris and I painted our faces and went to Hollywood Forever Cemetery for Dia de Los Muertos a.k.a. Day of the Dead on Saturday, Nov 1, 2008.After we spent 30 minutes or so painting up our faces and Declan's, Carlos looked at the paint box, and saw that it was made in China, and we immediately worried about all the toxic chemicals we had caked on our faces... We washed the face paint off of Declan, but decided to keep it on ourselves. After walking around at Hollywood Forever, we had a delicious Mexican meal (and spicy chili pepper margaritias!) at Loteria Grill in Hollywood Check out my photoset on flickr. Labels: holidays, la, losangeles, selena posted by Jess Barron @ 11:10 AM
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| October 26, 2008 | Uncanny Ability to Inspire |
 We saw these "can sculptures" of Mr. Potato Head, WALL-E, and The Little Engine That Could when Chris and I went to our gym at the Water Garden in Santa Monica. Their goal is to bring attention to a local can drive. They built Mr. Potato Head because potatoes have nourished hungry people for centuries... It's such a strange thing to think about in LA where most of the people I know (including myself!) avoid carbs and starches as if they were a plague on humanity. These sculptures were a clever -- and successful -- way to get our attention and remind us that we need to make a donation to the can drive. Labels: art, la, losangeles, santamonica posted by Jess Barron @ 11:03 AM
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| August 14, 2007 | I Was Ecstatic About Meeting David Lynch |
It's definitely not as awesome as Bethany's photo with David Lynch, but I must say I was bowled over just by shaking hands with this guy. We were at an "Inland Empire" DVD signing at a bookstore here in LA, and I carried all my David Lynch stuff:  and I dropped the whole pile onto the table for him to sign. I officially had the biggest pile of David Lynch items at the signing, so I guess that made me David Lynch's "Biggest Fan." (I hope that didn't scare him too much.) David Lynch is my favorite celebrity-person in Los Angeles and the director/artist/writer I most admire. I couldn't say even one intelligent thing when I shook his hand. I just said, "Hello David Lynch." And then I stood there for at least a minute not saying anything until Chris pulled me away. Chris actually conversed with him. Neither of us got to ask where he got his inspiration for the bunny people in "Inland Empire." Shoot. I hope I get another chance to meet him. Labels: celebrities, davidlynch, losangeles posted by Jess Barron @ 10:49 PM
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| October 2, 2006 | Do Not Taunt My Marc Jacobs Bag |
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Over the summer, to celebrate my four-year anniversary of working at Yahoo!, I splurged and bought my first very expensive designer handbag. I was able to justify the purchase because I made sure to choose a large, strong shoulder bag that was capable of carrying my laptop and could also function as a carry-on overnight bag for short trips up to Sunnyvale. (After 4 years of toting a laptop around, my big bulky, standard issue Yahoo! backpack had seen better days...) If you want to ogle this fine item, check out this ABC News video where I talk about the most-searched handbags, and show off my own gorgeous handbag for a fleeting moment. The tag that came in the pocket of my Marc Jacobs handbag amuses me. It says: "This Marc Jacobs Collection bag has been made in Italy. Any incidental marks, tonal changes and/or textural variances on the leather This bag enjoys a cool, dry place, like Los Angeles. Can you believe all of these rules for care? It's like everything that might be messed up with the leather "is NOT an imperfection" -- it's a characteristic, and any problems you might have with this bag are DEFINITELY due to your own poor care of the product, i.e. getting it wet, or not putting it inside its dust cover when not in use. I'm not even going to mention how much such a product costs. Also, do not taunt this Marc Jacobs bag. Labels: losangeles, purse, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 3:10 PM
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| November 9, 2001 | California -- It's the Cheese |
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"Happy cows make great cheese, and happy cows live in California." --a cheesy quote from California dairy farmers’ ubiquitous "It's the Cheese" tv ad campaign. "California is the only state that touches both Mexico and Canada." --Mindy, my (actually quite) intelligent friend who received her B.A. from Vassar. Three things: 1. It's November 9, and it's 75 degrees, and I'm wearing sandals. 2. As of next week, I will have lived in my loft for one calendar year. I'm actually planning to stay here one more year. This fact may not sound exciting to you, but this will be the first time since I was 17-years-old (ten years ago) that I've lived in the same dwelling for longer than 12 months. 3. I really do love California. Well, mostly I love Los Angeles and San Francisco (I can say with some certainty that I do not love Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, or Davis. But I will admit that there is still something interesting about places like Pasadena, pre-fab Palo Alto, and Sausalito.) Though I do not unconditionally love all the other California cities, there is something I do love about driving the 5 from bottom to top, my eyes lingering along the vast bountiful fields filled with fruit year-round, intersected by elaborate aqueducts, and lined with neat rows of plants and trees. As I reach northern California, I can't help but ogle the gorgeous soft rolling grassy green hills. Unlike the jutting mountain-like hills of New Hampshire or Vermont, northern California's hills seem take special care not to block out the sun. Sometimes I think I'm one of the only people who loves both San Francisco and Los Angeles. I am, quite possibly, the only person foolish enough to admit in writing that I love Los Angeles a bit more. A few days after moving to SF last fall, I was invited to a loft party in SOMA. While being introduced to a woman around my age, I accidentally mentioned that I had just moved to the city from Los Angeles. Her immediate self-satisfied response was, "Well, at least you're in a better city now!" I tried to explain to her that not everyone is completely brainwashed that the Bay Area is the best place to live, but it wasn't worth getting in a bitch fight and/or shattering her idea of reality. When I lived on the East Coast in Boston in 1996, I always assumed I would move to San Francisco. SF was so cool -- it was the dot.com epicenter -- (and I was already working at Monster.com and completely bought in on "The Revolution," as stupid as that now sounds.) Los Angeles seemed sort of tacky in comparison. When I was trying to get my employers at Wildweb to pay for my transfer to Los Angeles in 1999 (from Boston) my friend and manager, Eliot, a former Angeleno, had warned me, "People in the Bay-Area treat Los Angeles as if it's this big, dumb dog. And Los Angeles maybe kind of just accepts that stereotype, because I don't think LA really cares about the image as much as people might think. But anyone who lives there knows that LA actually has a lot of things, particularly in Los Feliz and Silverlake, that are just as cool, if not cooler than anything they have up there. Plus there are more artists." With Eliot's assistance and a bit of luck, I did end up being transferred from Boston to Los Angeles, and when I arrived there, I found a place that was so strange and filled with people who all had huge dreams and bizarre quirks. I was convinced, and still am, that it had to have been created by someone's imagination like some kind of trippy cartoon. The way the sunlight hits the buildings at 3 in the afternoon, the shadows and colors are so dramatic, you constantly feel like those scenes in a movie where they close-up on the lover beaming down over the beloved's face. (I swear I wasn't much of a romantic until I moved to Los California.) I know, no one's supposed to love Hell-ay, but I did. I fell in love with the city no one was supposed to love, just as easily as I fell in love with the goofy messed-up boy in my life who was daring me to love him. When my friend Jeff and I decided to go west just over two years ago, he was living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which he loved, except for the sweltering summer heat waves that kept everyone inside hovering around an air conditioner. Jeff and I had been friends since we were fifteen. We grew up in a Massachusetts suburb and met in a public school Latin class. Three years after my graduation from Vassar, I was living in Cambridge, MA and hating everything about the uptight Bostonian East Coast attitude. I had already been bitten by the Burning Man bug, and realized that the majority of Black Rock City's inhabitants hailed from the West Coast. "When a lot of people get together in the best places things go glimmering. The thing is to have a lot of people in the center of the world, wherever that happens to be. Then things go glimmering." I beckoned Jeff to move west with me, peppering my speech with lines from "Absolution," one of my favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories. Two of our other friends Paul and Hillary already lived in the City of Quartz. Paul lived in Santa Monica studying architecture at Sci Arc and Hillary lived in Hollywood and worked in acquisitions at Fox. Jeff became convinced. The only decision was whether to find an apartment in cool-kid Los Feliz or out by the sparkly ocean in Santa Monica. Our jobs on the Westside dictated our choice, and I found that I could be happy living anywhere in Los Angeles, even in West LA where we were surrounded by UCLA kids and families with Spanish-style bungalows with immaculate lawns. Maybe I loved Los Angeles most because I hit it at an interesting time in my life. I was really ready to begin everything. I wanted to dance all night to glam rock in Hollywood clubs with strippers and guys in bands. I wanted to dress even more flamboyantly. I wanted to learn to rollerblade while watching the sun set over the ocean and licking the salt from my lips. Maybe I loved Los Angeles because I hit it at an interesting time in its life. I saw the entertainment dot.com bubble from the inside. My P-2-P MP3 start-up company was headquartered in Beverly Hills and majority-owned by mogul Michael Ovitz. The people I met were writers, photographers, painters, musicians, and actors (some whose names you’d recognize, and some who you would not), and they didn’t all hail from New England or go to college in the Northeast. They had their own unique dreams and they weren't doing these things just because their families expected them to. A few weekends ago while walking barefoot on San Francisco's Ocean Beach, Mindy and I were speculating about which, if any, states could successfully succeed from the Union. "California is probably the only one that could do it, right?" I ventured. "Well, California is the only state that touches both Mexico and Canada," Mindy said. "California doesn't touch Canada!" I exclaimed, and both of us immediately started laughing. "I can’t believe I said that," Mindy said, while still giggling. "It's stuff like that that makes people in Washington and Oregon hate Californians." I admitted that I sometimes pictured the map that way too. I suppose that confirms it -- we're officially Californians now. Labels: california, jeff, la, losangeles, mindy, quotes, sanfrancisco, sf, web posted by Jess Barron @ 8:39 PM
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| October 24, 2000 | A Love Affair with Los Angeles |
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"I'd give my life just to dream with you on a bed of California stars." - Billy Bragg & Wilco "California Stars" I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but I somehow convinced Gareth to leave his life in Denver behind and move to California to live with me. I must have some incredible powers of persuasion. I've only known him for one month. I accepted a new job. I'm working for Microsoft in Mountain View, California. Sorry, but I can't really tell you what I'm going to be doing, because it's kind of a secret. I had to sign the usual all-encompassing non-disclosure agreements. I assure you that the projects I will be involved with will not harm anyone and should in no way risk causing a thermal-global-nuclear war. The job is great (and I'm going to be working with my friend Allyson again!), but this unfortunately means that I hafta leave Los Angeles and move to uber-expensive San Francisco. I'm starting next week, so my langorous days of unemployment in LA are coming to an end. It's weird because four years ago when I first wanted to move to California from the East Coast, I thought I'd move to San Francisco. I never even considered Los Angeles, because I didn't think I'd like it. But now that I've lived here for a year, I love LA, and I'm afraid that San Francisco will pale in comparison. I feel like I will be arriving in San Francisco just as the party is ending. You know, when the dim lights are turned up and the ambient music is turned off and everyone realizes that the night of drunken magic is drawing to a close and they have to go home to their cold, lonely beds. As T.S. Eliot so eloquently put it, "This is how the dotcom revolution ends -- not with a bang, but a whimper." (Of course, Eliot was talking about the world and not the "dotcom revolution," but since dotcoms have comprised my entire world for the past four years, I suppose you will accept and understand the substitution.) What's more -- all the people I know in San Francisco (and most San Franciscans, actually) hold a disdainful attitude toward LA. They'll tell you that LA is full of traffic and smog and vapid people, but they don't even stop to realize that their city (and its Southern appendage Silicon Valley) has 100 times worse traffic, the streets are dirtier, and their population is almost entirely twentysomething technology people whose cocktail party chat makes actors and film industry people look smart, interesting, and even deep. Don't get me wrong, most of my friends (in both cities) are twentysomething technology people, it's just that in LA (as opposed to SF)I also have friends who are writers, film-makers, actors, and writers, not to mention waitresses, masseuses, and public school teachers. I don't think those kinds of people can even afford to live in San Francisco anymore because the rents in the city are so ridiculous. But in L.A., rent is fairly cheap (when compared to Boston, NYC, and SF), so the city has a much more diverse population. I've been spending the last few weeks of unemployment trying to enjoy LA and do some of the things I don't normally have time or inclination to do. You can check out my photos from the Getty Center, Point Dume in Malibu, The Mondrian, Earth Dance, Santa Monica Pier, and Beauty Bar. The worst part about moving to San Francisco is trying to find a decent studio or one bedroom apartment that allows dogs that is less than $4000 per month in rent. Gareth and I drove up to SF yesterday to go to some open houses. We saw a loft in the Mission that we really liked, but we weren't ready to commit to it yet. (And we can't realistically afford the $6000 initial deposit until I start work.) We definitely like the loft spaces in SOMA, but we don't want people to resent us and think that we're dotcom yuppies. It's just that lofts have such great feng shui and they generally seem to allow dogs to cohabitate with humans. Reasons Not to Leave Los Angeles: Labels: allyson, la, losangeles, microsoft posted by Jess Barron @ 11:35 AM
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| July 11, 2000 | 4th of July South of the Border |
 Out of a desire for spontaneous travel to someplace we had never been, Selena, John and I went to Mexico City for the 4th of July weekend. We experienced the Mexican elections and the ensuing celebration first-hand. Vicente Fox won, overthrowing the PRI party which has ruled Mexico for over 70 years. When the results were being announced, a large crowd gathered at the Angel of the Revolution statue, waving flags and singing. Cars driving down Paseo de la Reform were beeping out little tunes with their horns, and the drivers were waving flags out the windows and giving the two-fingered "V" for victory sign. There wasn't any violence, just people cheering and celebrating. It ended up being quite an inspirational experience; we had never seen a whole city so excited over politics. Remember, we live in Los Angeles where violent riots break out when the Lakers win a basketball game. We also spent a day climbing the pre-Aztec pyramids at Teotihuacan -- which I am proud to say I climbed all the way up despite my fear of heights and my impractical (but-ever stylish) platform sandals. Check out the photoset. Labels: la, losangeles, selena, travel posted by Jess Barron @ 7:18 PM
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| June 11, 2000 | Dying to Disco |
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Barry's Boot camp is killing me. My entire body was in pain all weekend from Barry's "Disco Friday." Eighty push-ups, hundreds of squats, and almost a thousand crunches -- and let's not even talk about the running. Barry can tell if you're doing less than the required speed during the sprints. I know what it is like to die to disco music. There are muscles in my hands and wrists that are crying out as I type this. On Saturday Jeff and I got to Santa Monica by 9:30 a.m. and then we rollerbladed north of the pier to the end of the bike path. Then we went back south through Venice. Afterwards Jeff incited me to jump in the ocean, so we changed into our bathing suits on the middle of the beach (by holding up towels around each other while we were changing). We went up to our chests in the water and played in the waves, which were huge and kept knocking me down. We were giggling the whole time. Jeff got a bit of a sunburn. He's been away in New York for the past three months, and in comparison to me and Paul he looks very pale. (Jeff and I have both always been extremely pale with our freckle-y Irish skin, but now when I look at myself I am shocked to see that I am tan. I am no longer officially a goth girl. Sorry folks.)  Last Wednesday night, Jeff and Hillary and I went to the El Rey to see Sleater-Kinney and Bratmobile. Selena and Steve were there too. The show kicked ass. Bratmobile opened, and they started with "Love Thing" off of their 1993 album 'Pottymouth.' It begins with the singer Allison Wolfe screaming in a Valley girl accent, "Admit it, innocent little girls turn you on, don't they?" JP put that song on a mix tape he made me back in our Vassar days. That song rocks.Sleater-Kinney were incredible. The crowd was bouncing around completely ecstatic. They played "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone," and "You're No Rock'n'Roll Fun" and they did an inspired cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son" (you know, the song that goes:  "It ain't me. It ain't me. I ain't no Senator's son./ It ain't me. It ain't me. I ain't no fortunate one.") The one song I really wanted them to play was "Good Things" off of 'Call the Doctor.' I didn't think they would play it, and they didn't give it to us in the first encore, but I was thrilled when they came back for a second encore and started it with "Good Things." I was pretty close to the stage, so I took some photos of Corin and Carrie. Labels: jeff, la, losangeles, music, selena posted by Jess Barron @ 6:47 PM
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| June 4, 2000 | The Busier the Better |
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If you were wondering and waiting in antipication of why my car went "Boom!" last weekend, here is the official answer: It turned out that my pretty blue Beetle's battery exploded. Alas, it wasn't covered under the warranty, because as the mechanic guy eloquently and existentially put it: "sometimes you get a bad battery." But, it's all fixed now -- and I suppose my experience with the explosion could've been a lot worse. Like if I had driven to Tijuana for Memorial Day weekend. I will just file the whole car incident under "How to lose $400 without really trying." Grrr! I really need to remember to sign up for AAA. Selena tells me that membership includes a bail bond. Apparently, in the event that you are ever thrown into the clinker, those Triple A peeps will front your bail. That's pretty sweet.) The last few days have been some of my favorite since I've moved to Los Angeles. I've been feeling so good, and doing things that I'm enjoying so deeply. I guess it began with Tai Chi on Thursday morning. I knew I needed to try lots of new activities to help myself to not focus on Lee and to also get me to start trying all the things I wished I could learn. And that very morning Selena came in to work with a book of all kinds of courses. We started looking through it together and decided we wanted to take: belly dancing, bartending, tai chi, yoga, self-hypnosis, drum lessons, conversational Japanese, and DHTML. We had to narrow it down a bit, so that we could focus properly and so that we'd have *some* free-time left. We decided to save belly dancing and conversational Japanese for later. But then we decided that we're going to join Barry's Bootcamp too. We're starting that tomorrow, and we're going to be doing it every day at 6:45 AM. Yes, that's AM. Wish me luck. It may just be too hardcore for the likes of me. We'll see. So, Selena and I started going to a Tai Chi class last Thursday night, and it really helped me to get over the negative funk I was in. It takes so much concentration to learn the movements, that I was able to get completely out of my head for the three hours while we were in class. It's one of the only activities I've found that is completely relaxing for me. It eradicates all of my anxious feelings. Now every morning and night I keep practicing the postures we were taught, and I can't wait to learn more this week. I wonder if yoga will be this good. I can only hope. On Saturday, I had breakfast with Adam (who is the singer for Timonium, a darkly ethereal band I might go see play this Tuesday night at the Silver Lake Lounge, but I'm not sure because that's the night that Jeff comes back from NYC). And then we went to Rhino Records (which, as it turns out, is only about two blocks from my house). We spent a few hours there, hearing new music on the listening stations and also listening to older CDs in the used section. Adam told me that he thought I would like a British band called Broadcast, and when I listened to their CD "The Noise Made By People," I fell in love. I bought that CD and also Dimitri from Paris' mix CD "A Night at the Playboy Mansion." I also bought a few used CDs (Laika's "Sounds of the Satellites" and Shudder to Think's soundtrack to the film "First Love, Last Rites.") After Adam left, I went up onto the roof of my apartment building and listened to music on my discman for a few hours. I mostly focused on the Travis CD "The Man Who." It's a great album. My favorite song is the first track "Writing to Reach You" (yeah, it's probably not surprising that a web writing person would relate to that one, huh?) I just love the opening lyrics: Everyday I wake up and it's Sunday This morning I went bowling in the Valley with Ray and Selena. I learned how to bowl the real way, (as opposed to my old method of just rolling the ball with both hands in the between-the-legs stance). After bowling we had coffee at Buzz in West Hollywood. And then I went to visit JP, and we had a great time. After that I went to see Robert Mapplethorphe's controversial exhibit "The Perfect Moment" at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Labels: beetle, jp, la, losangeles, music, selena posted by Jess Barron @ 10:16 PM
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| May 29, 2000 | We Like the Cars, the Cars that Go "Boom!" |
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This past Saturday night while en route to a party, my car exploded in my friend Chris's parking garage. Well, it didn't really explode. It just went "Boom! really loud and scary-like, when I put the key in the ignition. The doorman inside the building even heard the "boom!" And then the whole thing was dead, and there was smoke coming out from under the hood. It was very scary; you can even ask JP. We couldn't understand why a new Beetle that had just turned two-years-old would do something like that. It didn't stop us from going to the party, though. Chris kindly drove us, and we put off calling a tow truck until our return. Chris works at Anteye, this website where users submit their film and video shorts. I met Chris through Kim, one of my friends from home who I've known since 4th grade. They went to U Miami together. The party was cool. Chris and his friend Patrick are absolutely hysterical. I pretty much forgot about my car's demise until we returned to Hollywood later that night to call the tow truck. It cost $220 to tow my car from Hollywood to Santa Monica Volkswagen. Grrrrrr! And I don't even know what's wrong with it yet, since it was a holiday weekend and no one has been in to look at it. I seriously hope that this mysterious problem is covered in my warranty. Cars should not just go "boom!" JP and I went to another party that Chris invited us to on Sunday. It was at some producer guy's house in Santa Monica. He had a huge deck that overlooked the ocean. It was gorgeous. But it's in a weird part of Santa Monica and it took JP and me two hours to find the place. At least we were able to entertain ourselves in the car by playing Hole's "Celebrity Skin" and every mix tape we had access to. Labels: beetle, la, losangeles, party, web posted by Jess Barron @ 7:33 PM
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| March 29, 2000 | Scour=Seinfeld 90210 |
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I really *am* living inside a cartoon, or perhaps some twisted-micro-topic-dissecting Seinfeldian sitcom. Yesterday at the office (i.e. Scour.com in the 90210), Camille was telling me about her bizarre mayonnaise phobias (brought on by working at a sandwhich shop with a woman who licked the spoon while transferring a large vat of said oily-eggy substance into smaller containers) while we were snacking in our office's kitchen (which like kitchens at most decent start-up companies is always well-stocked with Pop Tarts, Red Vines, Kit Kats -- I couldn't find a website for Kit Kats, but I did find The Kit Kat Ranch, a bordello in Nevada, Corn Nuts, M&Ms, Pretzels, assorted sodas, and Perrier), when Kris wandered in. Overhearing our conversation, she said, "You think that's gross? You wanna her something really gross?" and then proceeded to tell us about the "universal sponge." According to Kris, one of her girlfriends is married to a guy who used to do something very dubious in his bachelor days. When this friend of Kris's was first dating this guy, she discovered that he would use a sponge to clean his toilet, and then use that very same sponge to wash dishes. It was his "universal sponge." Camille and I were shocked and repulsed. Caroline (who was photocopying in the vicinity) could not believe it either. The way we see it, sponges can make a progressive one-way transition through household tasks (for instance, you can use a sponge to wash dishes for a week or so and then when it gets older it can be used for cleaning counter tops or the sink and then when its even older, it can be used to clean in the bathroom), BUT once a sponge is used for something other than dishwashing, it CANNOT make the move back to being a dishwashing sponge. There need to be some lines drawn. You should not have a "universal sponge." Apparently, this guy has learned the error of his ways and now subscribes to the separatist transitional theory of sponge usage. In any case, I'm just glad I never ate dinner at his house. Later in the evening, I was eating take out vegetarian in the conference room with the rest of the web development team, when it came up that I had gone to school at Vassar (that kind of stuff always comes up -- that's precisely why people go to sorta pretentious-y schools like Vassar in the first place) and Ilya, one of our site's founding engineers, said, "Oh. You went to Vassar? I know some people who went to Vassar." "Were they guys or girls?" I asked. (A fairly reasonable question.) "I'm not sure," he responded. "You don't know your friends' genders?!?" I started cracking up. He explained that he couldn't remember which of his friends went to Vassar, and therefore since he didn't know which friends were the ones, he wasn't sure of the genders. I guess it makes sense. Sort of. From there, we heartily launched into the topic of whether robots had genders. We all agreed that we naturally assumed that R2-D2 and C-3PO (sci-fi savants the web engineers immediately announced they were played by Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels) were male, although R2's gender is left somewhat ambiguous. Out of nowhere, John insisted that Moffit the Daggit from BattleStar Galactica was played by a monkey. Nobody else believed him. "That's an urban legend. Moffit was just a puppet," Shac said. So, we pulled up the Internet Movie Database on the overhead projector, and did a search for Battlestar Galactica, and found that Moffit wasn't listed. That didn't solve any of our problems. "Does the IMDB not list animal actors?" I wondered, appalled at this unfair treatment. Sure enough, we looked up Lassie, and there wasn't even a mention of the series' star. Then we returned to our Daggit debate, and after some dedicated searching on John's part, we found The Battlestar Galactica episode guide which tells that Moffit the Daggit is played by "Evie the chimp." Score one for John. Labels: camille, la, losangeles, scour, vassar, web posted by Jess Barron @ 4:55 PM
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| March 27, 2000 | Living in LA Is Like Living Inside a Cartoon |
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I've said it once, and I'll say it again: living in L.A. is like living inside a cartoon. It is everything that spending my formative years within inches of a television screen prepared me for. Sometimes when I'm walking through my well-manicured West L.A. neighborhood under palm trees and sunny skies, I expect a team of key grips to come through and slide away the lush back-drop. It's as if everything around you has been digitally enhanced. Flowers are blooming year-round; you can always smell Eucalyptus trees and honeysuckle. And my neighbors even talk to me when I pass them on the street! But, get this: I work for a start-up Web company (Scour.com), and our office is on Maple Drive in Beverly Hills. How many start-up companies have offices in the 90210 zip code?! If I didn't know any better, I'd swear I was on television. Labels: la, losangeles, scour, tv posted by Jess Barron @ 9:54 PM
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| March 16, 2000 | Viper Room, Part 2 |
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This email chain was in response to Allyson's email about our star-studded evening at the Viper Room's secret Cult show... -----Original Message----- From: Jess Barron [mailto:jessb@poprocks.com] Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 3:14 AM To: "Allyson" Subject: Viper Room Cult show reported about on Alloy.com Hey Allyson, I just noticed a report about our Viper Room/Guinness Toast party on Alloy.com. Go to: http://www.alloy.com/a2k/todayinalloy/newsandgossip/ and scroll down to the entry for March 6 where you'll see: THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD Looks like all you need to do to get stars to participate in a publicity stunt for free is serve them beer - lots and lots of beer. At least, that worked for Guinness, the Irish beer company that organized a 60-city, 300,000 person toast to (what else?) the wonders of Guinness in order to make it into the 2001 Guinness Book of World Records in the category of "Largest Simultaneous Toast." Joining the L.A. toast party at the Viper Room were such celebs as Johnny Depp, Tori Spelling, David Boreanaz, Alyssa Milano, Edward Furlong, Donovan Leitch, Rose McGowan, Matthew McConaughey, Vince Vaughn, Steven Dorff, and Paul Rudd. Sounds like quite a kegger! If you scroll further down to February 11, you'll see a report mentioning Monica L's boyfriend Jeff (Boggs) who writes for the Tom Green show. I coulda scooped them on *that* story. He convinced her to go on the show, the night they were out at Lava Lounge with me... MONICA LEWINSKY TO BE ON THE TOM GREEN SHOW Think that the Tom Green episode where he gave his parents lawn, er, art was funny? Well, that's nothing compared to what he's got planned next: Tom, Monica Lewinsky, and a camera crew, all in Tom's hometown together. Check this itinerary: First night in town, make a late-night visit to Tom's parent's bedroom. Next day, have Monica pose for a an Ottawa Sun feature on local beauties. Stop for coffee. Steal coffee filters to wear as hats. Toy with reporters by promising to make "a major announcement" about Monica and Tom's status as a couple soon, even though Monica is already seeing Jeff Boggs, one of Tom Green's producers. (So THAT'S how she ended up on the show.) We can't wait for this episode to air! -----Original Message----- From: Allyson Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 9:53 AM To: 'Jess Barron' Subject: RE: Viper Room Cult show reported about on Alloy.com WE MISSED TORI SPELLING?!?! Ooops, I mean... WE MISSED JOHNNY DEPP?!?! Labels: allyson, famous, la, losangeles posted by Jess Barron @ 2:14 PM
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| March 15, 2000 | Ray Santamaria's "Starwhore" Email About our Scour Lunch |
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An email my friend Ray sent out after our starstudded Scour lunch today at The Newsroom: -----Original Message----- From: "Ray" Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 5:09 PM To: the Scour peeps Subject: Starwhore Newsletter #2 Circulation, 11 Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed the first edition of the Star Sighting Newsletter, now titled, Starwhore Newsletter. In addition, please be aware that I spoke out of turn by providing the URL of Starwhore.com. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, it's taken. While I'm negotiating the purchase of Starwhore.com (I don't usually have $15 mil in my bank) you can reach us at Starwhore.org. Anyway, we have a fun filled Newsletter for you that I'd like to call "Five Finger Discount." Read on and enjoy! Ray Santamaria Editor In Chief, Starwhore.org Five Finger Discount It was all about five today. I checked my horror scope, but no numbers. What is the meaning of five today? My soul was searching for the truth as I hopped into the car with my four friends for our secret rendezvous at the inconspicuous Newsroom Cafe. As the five of us (hmmm, five...) walked in, my heart, among other things, began to pound as the first female I noticed in the place was none other than Superman's girlfriend herself, Lois Lane. No, not crazy Margot Kidder. She's off in an alley somewhere bumming Prozac. I'm talking about sexy, anorexic Terri Hatcher. I had no idea who the dweeb was, but who's looking? For a split second we looked at each other. There was something in our gaze. Something unsaid passing between us. I don't think she really knew it was me who farted. In my starstruck haze I realized I left my wallet back at HQ. Drats! A starwhore's worst nightmare! One of my cohorts said he would cover me. No problem. We went to sit down. But wait! Was this the day of Super Heroes? Wonder twin powers, activate! Make me into the shape of...Batman! Against the back wall of the cafe was none other than Batman himself, Michael Keaton! Wait a second! Michael...Terri. Does Superman know about this? Sure, they were at different tables, but c'mon! Coincidence? At the table, another peep of mine mentioned the Jack Frost movie that Michael Keaton did. I punched him and threw ice down his shirt for even bringing that up. I told him he should go apologize to Michael for even seeing the movie. Whatever. But, Jesus, he is losing his hair isn't he? Blah, Blah, Blah. Yeah, I forgot, that punk rock kid from Son of Sam was waiting next to us for a table. Adrian Brody. What's he done lately? He was waiting for a table just like us. Puleeeeeze. So, my secret agent team and I enjoy our meal and try to hide our identities by not looking around the room too much. The key to being incognito is to avoid eye contact. It was working till I noticed a young man in dark sun glasses and a tacky suit. He looked like he was in the mob, or even in the CIA pretending to be in the mob. My crew and I pondered the possibilities only to realize its Michael Imperioli (loose cannon "Christopher" on the Sopranos). Wow. He really gets into character, doesn't he? Didn't he have something to do with Son of Sam? Another colleague says he was a writer.Hmmm. Coincidence? We also saw Michael on the way out of the garage. He got into the back of a Nissan Altima. Hmmm. His character recently got shot. Coincidence? Just when you think it's over, it's not. We're eating. Having a good conversation. There's this woman at the table across from us. She's facing me. Why won't she look at me?Ê I'm wearing Maharishi! I put product in my hair this morning! What gives? Probably a dyke! Whoa! It is! It's Sandra Bernhart! I won't hold it against her. As you can see, it was a very exhausting lunch. Five secret agents who had their privacy invaded by five stars (and two Internet geeks).What can you do? I'll tell you. Get your lunch for free, beeeee-aaaaaahtch! Labels: famous, la, losangeles, scour posted by Jess Barron @ 6:00 PM
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| March 1, 2000 | Allyson's Email Following the Secret Cult Show |
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An email Allyson wrote to her friends after her weekend in LA, where I took her out to the Viper Room for The Cult's secret show (thanks to Ray): _______________________________ From: "Allyson" To: everyone CC: jessb@poprocks.com Subject: LA Story Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 01:16:12 To all my celebrity stalking friends -- I was so fortunate to arrange a visit to LA this past weekend and to have plans with one JESS BARRON, the very same day she did secure two spots on the VIP GUEST LIST to a suprise Cult show at none other than LA's infamous Viper Room where the not-so-fortunate RIVER PHOENIX did pass his last moments on this here earth. Needless to say we experienced multiple celebrity sightings covering the worlds of music, film and television... With the highlight of our evening being my exchange with Mushmouth-style hat-donning FIONA APPLE: Me: Watch out, it's wet there. (As Fiona Apple sits next to me on a couch where someone had spilled a drink.) Fiona Apple: Oh! You're right. Me: I think someone spilled a drink. Do you want me to move over? Fiona Apple: No, I'm fine. I'm just happy to sit down for a while! (smiling, sweet) ME: Okay. Furthermore, below is the complete list of stars witnessed by Jess and myself, in no particular order: 1. DAVID BOREANAZ 2. MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY 3. FIONA APPLE 4. MARILYN MANSON 5. ROSE McGOWAN 6. ERIC ERLANDSON (from Hole) 7. TOM PETTY (possible) Not a bad take for one night out. Many thanks go to Jess for showing me the best possible of times in the world's capital for GLITZ, GLAMOUR and, as she aptly pointed out, DETACHED and UNAFFECTED Hollywood WANNABES. Long live the Viper Room, free Guinness, and waify little singers. THE END Labels: allyson, famous, la, losangeles, music posted by Jess Barron @ 9:08 PM
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| October 20, 1999 | Living in the Wild, Wild West |
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If you've wondered why I haven't updated my online journal in a few weeks, it's because I've been in the process of moving myself and all of my material possessions (including my computer) from Boston to Los Angeles. WildWeb transferred me out to the west coast to help open their new office. I've been wanting to move to California for at least a year, so I was glad to get the opportunity to finally do it. I am enjoying L.A. so far. Bocce and I are currently staying at Hillary's apartment in Hollywood. She and I just signed a lease on a new place in West Los Angeles with Jeff, who resigned from his job at The Nation earlier this month. He's leaving New York to come out here and live with Hillary, Bocce, and me. During the week I've been in L.A., I already witnessed an incredible car crash (a Range Rover flipped over outside our window on Hollywood Boulevard while Hillary, Chris, and I were eating dinner. The driver emerged from his overturned vehicle completely unscathed. The weird thing is that just minutes before we saw the accident, we had been talking about all the crazy car crashes they were able to cram into each episode on CHiPs) and ordered beer from Pink Dot. Our new apartment is OK, I suppose, though the style is this terrible faux colonial. There were borders around the top of the walls (I insisted that they rip them down when they repaint the place for us next week) and a fake brick floor in the entry way. I hate that I'm so tied to aesthetics, but it just isn't the kind of place I imagined I'd be living in. I guess I'm afraid we're going to be living in condo hell with all of the trappings, including gated parking and central air conditioning. I'm most worried about the negative effects such a place could have on Bocce. She is a delicate creature with refined sensibilities about taste and style. Being forced to live in an unattractive environment could cause permanent scars on her already issue-ridden psyche. Lee had told me again and again that I would probably want to live in Los Feliz or Fairfax or Hancock Park. And J.P. had been insisting that I get a place in Los Feliz/Silverlake which is where he lives. But Hillary said that that area is too long of a commute to Century City where she works. Also, Jeff and I figure that we will be working somewhere near the Westside. WildWeb is currently looking for office space in Santa Monica. Since we were looking for a three bedroom that allowed dogs, there weren't many listings available that suited our needs. So, we signed the lease on this apartment in West LA, sort of near Westwood. And I really shouldn't complain about our new place that we haven't even moved into yet, but when we visited Paul's apartment in Santa Monica this weekend I found that his place was exactly what I had imagined and hoped that my apartment in Los Angeles would be like. His place has hardwood floors (as opposed to our wall to wall carpeting) and funky tiles in the kitchen and bathroom (as opposed to our linoleum). What's more -- he has a view of the Santa Monica mountains, while our view is comprised of the stucco apartment building across the street. I told Paul that he won't be allowed to come over to our apartment. I'm sure his classes at SCI-Arc have only enhanced his natural disdain for unpleasant architecture. Once we move into this place, Jeff, Hillary, and Bocce and I will need to completely embrace our new home. I won't have anyone copping pretentious attitude about our place. At Jeff's behest, we will keep a sense of humor about it and possibly invest in a few naugohyde recliners to tie in the whole "look." Our new place has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two balconies, central air, a fireplace, parking, and a dishwasher -- so I really have no right to complain. I especially shouldn't be complaining since I will be inhabiting the master bedroom which has two closets -- all the better to contain my copious clothing collection (and my omnipresent alliterations -- which I assure you, I will keep inside my closet from now on. Your eyes and ears should not be senselessly bombarded by my letter repetition addiction). Jeff arrives in L.A. next week and it'll be interesting to see how the three of us get along living together. We've known each other since our high school days in suburban Northboro, Massachusetts. I hope this experiment in cooperative living doesn't end in disaster. As far as I'm concerned, as long as we procure a TV so that we can watch "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy" each week, everything will go swimmingly. We may also want to build a confessional booth a la MTV's Real World so that we can spill all of our angst and dirty secrets to a video camera on a weekly basis. Labels: jeff, la, losangeles, wildweb posted by Jess Barron @ 10:03 PM
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