Enjoying Some Nature in Los Angeles

I'm not really a nature person, which is not to say I'm a hater either. It's just not something I spend too much time thinking about and I don't go out of my way to become one with it or whatnot. However, not too long ago during a drunken phone conversation with a nature-loving friend we playfully argued over the attractions we'd like to visit on a possible road trip we'd like to take from Los Angeles to Seattle. He mentioned beaches, mountains and hikes while I mentioned places like Hearst Castle, Steinbeck's House and the fantastically "haunted" Winchester House. When he expressed a disinterest in my ideas, I got, shall we say, miffed, and angrily slurred at him that if he didn't want to do any of my stuff, I was not interested in doing any of "that nature shit" he'd mentioned.

The next day, I'd just about forgotten the conversation until he kindly reminded me about the "I'm not doing any of that nature shit" remark. And then I felt bad. In all honesty, while it's really not my favorite thing to do, I'm quite okay with it in moderation. So, spurred into action by that conversation and my embarrassment at dissing his passion, I took it upon myself to become just a little more outdoorsy. Emphasis on a little.

I took it upon myself to try some beginner's hiking at Eaton Canyon in Pasadena and found that though I'm badly out of shape, I quite enjoyed my hike. Admittedly though, on the day I was there we encountered a couple of busloads of kids (probably from summer camps) which was annoying. It deterred my friend and me from going on the trail leading to the waterfall because we couldn't deal with all their screaming. The one we ended up on was steep and kicked my ass, but was a welcome work-out. On our way back from that trail however, we encountered a group of teenagers. Incredibly loud, cursing, obnoxious thirteen year-olds. They were somewhat lost and asked if they could follow us back out which I agreed to only on the condition that they quit their screaming and cut the cursing out (I'm not opposed to cursing, as previously evidenced, but not by smart-ass, obnoxious teenagers in the middle of my hike). Luckily, they agreed.

I went back a few days later and in a way it was a better experience. For one, I knew what to expect and there were no buses of kids, which was great. We took the waterfall trail which I quite enjoyed probably because there weren't too many people on it that we had to wait on or move around. I understand it gets quite busy during the weekends though.

Both times I went I couldn't help but note how incredibly friendly everyone out there was. Almost everyone we passed said hello or bid us a good morning with a smile. It was great! Is this a nature people thing? I don't know, but I liked it.

Later today I plan to go to Runyon Canyon to give that a try. I've actually been wanting to go there for ages so I'm really looking forward to it.  I'm not necessarily sure it counts as hiking but it's definitely more nature-y than shopping right? So it should count towards my effort to get outdoors more. I'm just sayin'.

Here are my pics from Eaton Canyon:

The Eclipse Soundtrack. Why the hate?

Last week, one of my Facebook friends was complaining that he refused to pay $15 for that stupid Eclipse movie soundtrack despite the fact that it contained a handful of songs he wanted. Since then I've seen a few other things (blogs, status updates, tweets) in which people are complaining about something along those lines. And honestly, I don't get it.

Ok, yes, the soundtrack is tied to the movie, but buying the soundtrack does not force you to become a fan of it. It's just music. Really good music. Who cares why it was compiled? You don't have to watch the movies to be allowed to buy the soundtrack. The purchase of it does not mean anything more than you have good taste in music. What's the problem?

I can sort of understand how if you're a big fan of a certain artist you may take issue with them being involved with the franchise. I know Muse fans (of which I am one) had nothing good to say about the band's involvement with the movies (on a side note, click here  for an article I love about Matt Bellamy talking about what he thinks of that). But that's not really the case with people who complain about having to buy the soundtrack to get some of the songs they want, and that's why I'm confused. My aforementioned Facebook friend was not complaining about the artists being on the soundtrack. He was complaining about having to buy the Eclipse soundtrack.

I can't help thinking, at this point doesn't everyone know that if nothing else, the movies produce really good soundtracks so that if you were "caught" with it on your iPod, most people would just give you a pass? You may hate the movies, but the music has always been good and original and there are few who could really argue that. So I can't help but ask again, what's the problem?

Here's the delicious Florence + The Machine song Heavy in Your Arms which I honestly can't stop listening to. It's just too good.

Apparently, I'm a music snob.

The other day someone close to me half jokingly called me a music snob and I took issue. The song I refused to listen to was If I Had $1000000 by Barenaked Ladies, and, really? Firstly, I've never liked Barenaked Ladies and secondly, I especially never liked that song but because I now listen to mainly Indie stuff, the fact that I don't like a particular song by a band I never cared for makes me a snob? I beg to differ.

Years and years ago I started to very slowly meander away from the herd of mainstream music and started finding seldom heard of artists to listen to. Not because I was setting out to be a "music snob" as it were, but for the simple reason of, well, liking the music. It was purely accidental and I can peg it back to Damien Rice's O. My break-away from radio was done at a snail's pace so that it wasn't terribly noticeable at first and no one complained. A new artist here or there throughout the year and I mainly kept them to myself. But I'd say that over the last two years, it's now "my thing" and it can be several new artists or albums a month (on a good month) and I don't seem to hear the end of it from my friends.

I am forever reading music magazines, reviews, blogs, websites and so on in the search for new music. Again, I don't do it so that I can be "different", I just genuinely can't get enough. I get antsy knowing there's great stuff out there that I might not be listening to. And there's nothing better than when you take a chance on an album and find you can't stop listening to it for days, weeks, or months. There's so much good stuff out there I find it a shame that it doesn't get more attention, which is actually something I'm still baffled by.

The fact that I like music that doesn't get played on the radio shouldn't deem me a snob, I say. And, actually, there are quite a few bands I like that do get radio play, so that's not entirely accurate.  But overall, I cannot (though Lord knows I try when I need to) help it if I find listening to the radio to be incredibly mind numbing. It's the same ten songs played over and over and over again.

I can't help it if during road trips (which I take often with friends) I get genuinely bored or restless listening to the same artists and albums they (my friends) can't seem to move past. Even within the new artists I find, some albums I get attached to for years, while others make much shorter appearances on my iPod. My restlessness is not  reserved only for mainstream music. Again, I don't feel my impatience with music that doesn't stimulate me should make me a snob. Maybe it's musical ADHD, I don't know.

Lastly, a lot of the music I like is arguably questionable and certainly not critic proof, so I don't think I can be called a snob when I myself have questionable taste. At the end of the day, we all like some stuff that makes others scratch their heads in wonder. What I do have an issue with and find incredibly frustrating is people that never try anything new, who blindly accept those overplayed ten songs on the radio and think that's all there is. In that case, if that makes me a snob, then yes, I'd readily admit I am.

Bloodstream

I came across this song not too long ago and cannot stop listening to it. It's beautiful and haunting.

Visiting the Ghost Town of Calico

Every time my friends and I drive to Vegas we pass the Calico Ghost Town sign and invariably someone in the car always mentions that we should stop and see it some time, and then of course, we never actually do. Not too long ago we finally made the time and went.

I don't make a habit of visiting ghost towns, so in all honesty, I don't know how this one ranks among others. I can tell you that I pictured something like the old west sets and facades in the backlot of Universal Studios, if you've ever seen those, except that of course, they would be real and genuinely old.

As it happens with Calico, that isn't really the case. Yes, the location was a small town back in the 1800's but much of it is gone. There remain some pieces of walls and such, but most everything there was reconstructed in the middle (or so) parts of the 1900's if I remember correctly.

That being said, the experience, much as with everything else in life is really what you make of it, and we had  fun. The town is about 3 miles off the freeway exit and it should be noted that there is a $6 per person charge to enter. Something I don't think we realized before we got there, but paid nonetheless.

Almost the entire town is comprised of souvenir shops of some sort or another: Soap, candles, Native American knick knacks, food, and so on. A couple of the buildings are dedicated to the history of the town, like the firehouse which has a few old carts in it, and another building which shows you (with mannequins in much need of dusting) the way of life at the time, but again, primarily it's souvenir shops.

For an extra couple of bucks you can take a "tour" which promises a weird and whacky experience. I couldn't tell you what the experience was though because while we would have done it, no one ever showed up at the ticket counter to take our money despite walking by it about three times.

You can climb the hills and look at the view, which we did. And again, for another $2 you can walk through an actual old mine, which we did. It brought to mind the Big Thunder Mountain ride at Disneyland, minus the actual ride. For another few bucks you can ride a little train that takes you around the area and probably tells you more about the mining that was done there, but that one we did not do. We did wave at the passengers while standing atop the hills though.

I think possibly, our favorite thing was the best worst thing we've ever paid a quarter to see. It was this guy, sitting outside one of the souvenir shops (I think it was the "book" shop).

For a quarter you could "watch him suffer" which of course we could not help but be curious about, so we put in our quarter. He began to shake and speak in an old tired voice, saying something to the effect of how old and tired he was. Classic. We could not stop laughing. And no, they won't give you your quarter back when you realize that's all he's going to do.

We expected to be there no more than an hour but as it turned out, we were there for two. Like I said, we wanted to make the most of it and our six bucks, and I think we did.

DMB: Let the Fans Pick the Setlist. Just once? Please?

I was on Muse's website earlier today and saw that they are supposedly letting fans pick the setlist for 27 upcoming shows in England this summer. While I think it'd be a brilliant idea, I also think it makes for a great April Fools joke. And if it is one, they're going to have some pissed off (or at least marginally annoyed) fans when they let them in on the joke. Since I can't make the England shows, it makes no difference to me one way or another, I guess.

But it did get me to thinking... why don't bands do that from time to time? Namely, why doesn't the Dave Matthews Band let us do that? I think they'd be perfect for it because they tour every summer, so one show out of a whole summer tour is not going to disrupt anything, and they have some of the most loyal fans on the planet! Letting us have a say on what we want to hear for one show would be a nice thing to do. Right? The other thing is that of course, with the amount of show trading within the community, we could all get our grubby little paws on it. Or, they could release it as part of the Live Trax series.

I understand that we'd all go for the obscure stuff that Dave has forgotten the lyrics to, but hell, he forgets the lyrics to even the non-obscure stuff, so it wouldn't really big a big obstacle:  If it was voted on early enough  it's not like the band couldn't take some time to prep for it. I'm just sayin'. A pain in the ass for the band, no doubt, but relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, no?

The more I think about it, the more I convince myself it's a brilliant idea. I couldn't tell you the logistics of it, like how, with the many options of songs, we could narrow it down so we're not all over the place with choices. Or what venue it should be held at. I think it should be between the Gorge, Alpine or SPAC because those are hardcore fan favorites and the ones most fans migrate to. How would that work out for the casual fan? No clue. Valid things to work out, but certainly not deal breakers, methinks. I'm sure there's a reason- a good, valid reason for why this is not a realistic thing to do, but until someone can explain to me what that is, I may just start a movement on Facebook. Hey, that's how they got Betty White to host SNL, right?

Mmmm, Crumbs!

I keep a list of places (mostly food related) that are of interest to me which I use when I've got time and am out of ideas for where to go or what to do. These places come about in many different ways, not least of which is from television. Yes, I will take note when watching a t.v. show of where they're eating and if it's somewhere nearby and it looks good, I'll add it to my list. Ok, I'm totally shallow, but at least I know it, right?

Anyway, I'd heard of Crumbs but I'd not paid much attention until last week when I was sort of watching, ahem, Beverly Hills 90210 (though I think as part of the renovation to make it cooler and more relevant, it's been renamed just 90210, I'm not sure). In all honesty, I don't watch this show regularly. It was on as background noise while I stalked people on Facebook last week. Honestly.

In any case, there I was stalking away with the t.v. on in the background when I hear one of "my" little known bands, Blind Pilot, playing on the television. I have crazy music hearing abilities, as I've mentioned in another post-- I'm hyper aware of music being played anywhere, anytime. Especially artists I know that no one else seems to have heard of, so of course, my little ears perked up and I turned to see what was going on. There, on the screen were three very skinny girls seated outside of Crumbs enjoying some cupcakes, except I don't really think they showed them take a bite (though I could be wrong). After clapping giddily at the fact that Blind Pilot was actually being played as background music on t.v. (even if it was that show), I googled Crumbs and proceeded to drool for a good ten minutes after adding it to my list.

If you're reading this, Google it! Or, click on the link above! Tell me those cupcakes don't look ridiculously delicious. I was all about the Caramel Apple Cupcake. For about a week, I'd been salivating, dreaming and talking about that damn apple caramel cupcake. I could not stop my mouth from watering every time I talked about it and it sped Crumbs to the top of the list of places to try.

So, Sunday, there I was standing in the store at the Americana in Glendale, giddily staring at the display case where three Caramel Apple Cupcakes sat flirting with me. Only, we'd just eaten dinner and I needed to walk some of it off, so we left the store. We left the store! My friend actually mentioned that they might run out and I said, nah, it'll be fine, we won't be too long. I'm not making this up. Any of it.

On the way out of Barnes & Noble where we'd wandered to "walk it off", I see a guy walking with a clear plastic container full of cupcakes in hand, one of which is Caramel Apple, and I start to panic. I practically run back to the store where to my relief there is one Caramel Apple Cupcake left. There are two people in line in front of me. And yes, you guessed it, the person at the counter took the last one. I honestly almost cried. I actually contemplated trying to talk him into switching it for something else. And, most embarrassingly, I almost decided to throw a hissy fit and just leave because, why would they not have more cupcakes in the back, when there were still three hours until closing time?! How could they possibly not make enough to last the day? I was so pissed.

Of course, we didn't leave. There were three of us and we each got a different one so we could try as many as possible. We got Boston Cream Pie, Chocolate Pecan and Half Baked. Despite being ridiculously sweet and rich- especially the half baked, they were as good as you'd expect them to be for almost $4 a pop. I can only imagine (quite literally) how good my caramel apple would have tasted!

 From top left: Half Baked, Boston Cream, and Chocolate Pecan

I will be back, Crumbs. And you better not be out of Caramel Apple cupcakes or I will throw a full fledged tantrum right there in the middle of the store- and nobody wants to see that- least of all me!