the greater Silverlake area

Silverlake is the land of hipsters, to be sure.  Bordered by Echo Park and Los Feliz, it's kinda near Dodger Stadium, surprisingly close to Downtown, and also a neighborhood with a heavy immigrant influence, particularly from Mexico.  It's a diverse neighborhood, and for the most part not a flashy one.  It's also one I'm growing fonder and fonder of.  Not just because it's Hipsterville, U.S.A. (although this does mean there are some funky awesome little boutiques and some good people watching), but it's home to Beck (ok, not making a good non-hipster case yet), my favorite glasses shop, a fun and very legit weekly market, and it's got great street names.  

I'm not really where exactly on the Los Feliz-Silverlake-Echo Park map the following places lie, but most of them are in Silverlake, if not close by.

That said, here are some of my new favorite places.

1. Gogosha Optique - run by a wonderful eyewear guru named Julia, the frames are pricey but creative, interesting, and hard if not impossible to find anywhere else.  Their claim to fame, you walk in and instantly the sales clerk will find about a dozen frames that look good on you, but the two of you will work together to find the best match.

2. Little Dom's - while sometime I think they're called Major Dom's or they ought to serve Asian fusion, Little Dom's is in fact a good ol' fashion American restaurant with an old Hollywood glamour and a well-preserved charm.  Not only that, the food is excellent.  You can order a bowl of fruit as a side, but instead of your run of the mill cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, etc, they serve an eclectic and ever-changing mix of the best that's in season.  When I went, the fruit bowl included fresh fig, apricot, and plum, among other things.  

3. The Silverlake Farmer's Market - A good ol' fashion farmers market chock full of  fresh produce and home made crafts, but with a twist, meaning avocado crepes and pure cane juice, handmade notebooks made from recycled paper (so recycled that there's still writing on the other side) made by Tyler Bender, and an organic coffee stand that serves a drink called "Global Warming" (Cafecito Organico).  Granted, most of these vendors are also at the larger Hollywood Farmers Market, but I like Silverlake because it's smaller and more laid back (this may or may not be related to the pervasive smell of marijuana that lingers in the air).

4. The Echo - okay, so this one's definitely in Echo Park, not too far from the park itself, but its in the general region and it's a great concert venue.  Small, but not too small, there's seating against the wall if you get too tired of standing, but they keep a pretty solid lineup running through there, so during concerts there isn't much need to sit.  

spotlight on Cleveland

The rumors are true, today's spotlight city is none other than Cleveland, Ohio.

However, contrary to popular belief, I am not actually in Cleveland at the present time.

So then why Cleveland? Let me explain:

Having recently come into possession of a 2009 Cleveland calendar, I thought today was as good a day as any to hang my 99 cent calendar above my desk.  I opened it to July and lo and behold, a bright shiny picture of the Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum.  So maybe Billy is missing an S at the end of his name, small potatoes, we're totally related!  (...maybe)  

But why did I hang a 2009 calendar in July?

The calendar was a gag gift from one of my uncles to my dad for my dad's birthday which was in May.  My dad was both puzzled and unamused by the gift so after trying to pass it off to a cousin or two, the calendar fell into my possession and, as an enthusiast of the esoteric, I kept it.  Then it sat around for about a month at which point I rediscovered it and, as calendars are always handy, I hung it up.  This morning.

Coincidence #1 - I opened a random calendar at a random time to find the steamship of a man who will surely prove to be my long lost uncle.

Calendar in place, I went about my business.  A few hours later I got a call from a friend who just so happened to be en route to Cleveland himself. (Coincidence #2)  He is neither a resident, nor, at the time that we spoke, a fan of Ohio (pro - it's hillier than Indiana or Illinois, con - there are not enough rest stops on the highway; Ohio lost this round), but was on his way to see a friend.  We decided that should I fail at life, the next logical course of action would be to fly to Cleveland, paint an S on the Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum and claim ownership.  

Cleveland will be none the wiser.  

I've named this particular friend as my traveling correspondent and he's promised me an exposé on Cleveland, but in the meantime, I leave you with these:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907953
http://www.collegehumor.com/Video:1909669

lacma

Today I went to LACMA with my internship. It was wonderful, quick, but wonderful.

The most wonderful? Magritte's Ceci n'est pas une pipe, naturally ;)

Also, just saw this film, like it a lot, mostly for the conversation:

reference material

for all of your future Venn Diagram Day celebrations, refer to the following:

Suggestions 

Happy 4th of July*

Today is a day to celebrate.  But contrary to popular belief it is not just a day to celebrate America's independence from those rascally British (I love you Great Britain, I really do), it is also a day to celebrate Venn diagrams, those overlapping circles of joy and organization.  It is a young holiday and an obscure one to be sure, but every year it grows in popularity as people across the nation (and certainly soon, across the world) celebrate the beauty of a diagram that shows all possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets (thank you wikipedia).  And so, in honor of Venn Diagram Day, I humbly present my own Venn diagram for the occasion:

Please note that Lewis Carroll was indeed correctly placed in the "Venn diagrams" circle.  

But beware, dear reader, there have been unofficial attempts to celebrate Venn Diagram Day at other times in the year.  While the most logical celebrations might be August 4th or April 4th (the birth and death dates of John Venn respectively), no recognized celebration of Venn Diagram Day has ever occurred on either of these dates.  

2002 is the earliest known reference to Venn Diagram Day:

Exhibit A

Later, in 2006 a celebration of Venn diagrams took place sometime around November 16th:

Exhibit B

Exhibit C 

However, if you read the comments attached to Exhibit B, there is a brief explanation:

It actually started with a simple post from seasecret (the post is locked, otherwise I'd link to it) that simply said "I would like to see some Venn diagrams on my friends page." And we all took the bait. 

Nevertheless, the official celebration of Venn Diagram Day is July 4th and has been so for a number of years.  

So happy Independence Day, happy Venn Diagram Day, happy 4th of July*!

*I've been informed recently that July 4th may also be Venereal Disease Day, but I can neither confirm nor deny the legitimacy of this claim.