Restaurant: Locanda Portofino Location: 1110 Montana Ave. Santa Monica, Ca 90403. 310-394-2070 Date: May 20, 2011 Cuisine: Northern Italian Summary: Tasty neighborhood Italian ANY CHARACTER HERE For whatever reason Los Angeles has a lot of Italian restaurants. There’s a lot of competition and innovation, and…
Restaurant: Go’s Mart [1, 2] Location: 22330 Sherman Way, Canoga Park, CA 91303 818.704.1459 Date: May 28, 2011 Cuisine: Japanese Sushi Rating: Possibly LA’s best sushi! ANY CHARACTER HERE The Food Club has been talking about taking a trip to Go’s Mart for months,…
I’m sad. It could have been so much better. Oliver’s debut novel, Before I Fall, was fantastic. And I have nothing against dystopian — I am after all a hard core sci-fi reader — and the prose is great in this second novel, but the story and characters just fall flat.
Restaurant: Zengo [1, 2, 3] Location: 395 Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica, CA 90401. Tel. 310.899.1000 Date: May 20, 2011 Cuisine: Latin-Asian Fusion Rating: Color me confused — It’s in a mall, and it’s pretty good. ANY CHARACTER HERE As I discussed previously, this is a slightly commercialized…
Lessons is a lot like Lawrence Block’s Telling Lies for Fun & Profit. Both cover a bunch of the big areas quickly like plot and structure, and also include the author’s personal perspective on his career (Morrell’s best known for First Blood, on which the first Rambo was based) and the writing business. It does not focus heavily on sentences or editing. There were a number of interesting insights, and some interesting tidbits on the trials and tribulations of going Hollywood.
Restaurant: Sam’s by the Beach [1, 2, 3] Location: 108 W. Channel Rd.(PCH), Santa Monica, CA90402. 310-230-9100 Date: May 14, Sept 4, & Oct 30, 2011 Cuisine: Cal French International Rating: Stellar food and unparalleled service. ANY CHARACTER HERE I already covered the background…
Episode 7, “You Win or You Die.” In a lot of ways, this episode is the biggest pivot of events in the maelstrom of plot shifts. While Game of Thrones took it’s time setting up the characters in the first four episodes, 5-7 are a whirlwind of motion. Consequences are the theme.
Episode 6, “A Golden Crown.” The blast off that began last week with Episode 5 continues on full burn with Episode 6. The whole episode is pretty much wall to wall tension.
Restaurant: Rustic Canyon [1, 2, 3, 4] Location: 1119 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, Ca 90401. 310-393-7050 Date: May 13, 2011 & December 2, 2011 Cuisine: Farmer’s Market Californian Summary: Excellent Seasonal New American ANY CHARACTER HERE As a seasonal market driven California restaurant Rustic canyon can be counted on to mix…
This is one of the best YA books I’ve read in a long while. Part Groundhog Day, part The Source Code, part Judy Blume, part The Lovely Bones — all itself.
Today I reached a milestone and finished the first draft of my second novel, tentatively titled Untimed. Now this doesn’t really mean it’s done, revision is usually more work than the first draft. Still, it’s a book. It has a…
Restaurant: Takao [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] Location: 11656 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 207-8636 Date: May 15, 2011 Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi Rating: 9/10 creative “new style” sushi _ I’ve already covered Takao in some detail HERE and then separately here, but we went…
This 1934 novella just breezes on by. The first half (act I) is like watching a train wreck unfold. I greedily devoured the setup. Seedy drifter, sexy unhappy wife, and loser older husband. Plus it’s a crime novel. You know things aren’t going to end up good. The style here is lean and mean. It feels fully modern — timeless even.
Restaurant: Sushi Sushi [1, 2, 3, 4] Location: 326 1/2 Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 277-1165 Date: May 10, 2011 Cuisine: Japanese Sushi Rating: Old school sushi – fantastic fish and presentation! ANY CHARACTER HERE I had the sushi craving and went back again to my new…
Episode 5, “The Wolf and the Lion.” This is where four episodes of character development pay off. This week the writers deliberately narrow the focus of the story into the core conflict, like waters passing through a canyon, to build the pressure into a torrent.
Other than Marvel’s apparent desire to pull a kind of cinematic equivalent of the 1980s “Secret Wars” there really aren’t a lot of reasons why this movie needed making. It’s actually kind of bizarre, and I can’t really imagine that the Thor (as in comic) audience is immense. Although maybe I’m wrong.
Restaurant: Yogurt Shoppe Location: 873 Swarthmore Ave, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. 310-459-0088 Date: Friday May 13, 2011! Cuisine: Frozen Yogurt Rating: Yummy & Popular. ANY CHARACTER HERE Recently a new frozen yogurt place opened in the heart of the Pacific Palisades Village. This…
Season 3 continues to groove on the rhythm established in season 2. There aren’t any big shake ups in the formula, but by concentrating on the mob action and the relationships, it remains outstanding.
Restaurant: Chili Addiction Location: 408 N La Cienega Blvd. (323) 203-1793 Date: May 7, 2011 Cuisine: Comfort Food Rating: Tasty! ANY CHARACTER HERE Last Saturday a good friend of mine had a bunch of people over for a BBQ. He got all his…