Art Walk Patrol

Along with LAPD bicycle patrols, LAPD was seen walking their horses up Main Street.

After Last month's tragic accident involving a car parallel parking on Spring, banning the food trucks, art parks and stepped up police patrols seems to be the immediate response.

While picking up dinner and a movie, the sidewalks still seemed a bit busy at 4th and Main.

It's yet to be seen how the changes will affect tonight's Art Walk.

Art Walk Cat

Mac & Cheeza Comfort

Although its website says "Opening Fall 2009," it was during last night's art walk the little shop soft opened.


Located on 8th between Broadway and Spring, (next door to Kelly's fudge) if you blink you might miss it.

The shop specializes on one thing: Mac & Cheese. It comes in some 4 different sizes from "Baby Mac" at $5 to "Mac Daddy" (which sounds like a family size portion) which runs about $25 and includes one additional item. Items like mushrooms, spinach, collard greens and meats like bacon or chorizo, or veggie sausage are $1 each.

Order at the counter, and it's made right in front of you.. Choose your size, what kind of mac (whether regular or rice) regular cheese or soy, any additions you want or if you want a toasted topping..


They make it to order and put it through their little oven..


"Baby Mac" w/ Spinach...

We got ours pretty quick and the container was HOT.. so be careful. It was also cheesy so we made a little mess taking the lid off.. They have Tapitio sauce to put on it so we got a packet of that.. (personally I like sriracha as it's a little hotter) and split it in half.. I'd say it's about a cup and a half serving.. Which technically is more than a serving. One person could definitely eat as a meal.


With the tapatio added and mixed up.. You can see the cheesiness and spinach..

HOW DID WE LIKE IT??

Well, for the price point it can't be beat.. I'm a big fan of mac & cheese.. This isn't my favorite mac & cheese.. I want to go back and try the chorizo or the collard greens.. anything that will give it a bit of a kick. The cheese blend is very mild and doesn't really add anything to the dish.. The spinach was good but again, there wasn't much flavor in ours.. It is what it is: Mac & Cheese.

Mac & Cheeza won't unseat my favorites: Royal Clayton for portion, price & creaminess.. or Nickel Diner's Smac & Cheese for zestiness.. even Pete's Cafe, which is somewhere between Royal Clayton's & Nickel Diner in portion, but has a 5 cheese blend that is cheesy.. but not zesty, would win out over this place.

Will I go back (I think I said I need to try more flavors!)? Yes.. not too often though.. after my art walk adventures (splitting a strawberry shortcake at Syrup Desserts and a couple minis from Big Man Bakes) I gotta pace myself.. I gained a pound overnight from all my food naughtiness... Also the Nickel being my favorite is a lot closer. ;P

Mac & Cheeza is soft opening over the next few days.. and then they'll have a Grand Opening the beginning of March. Check them out if you're in the area.. They're soy/ veggie friendly and again, they are very reasonably priced. CASH ONLY for now..



Mac & Cheeza
223 W. 8th St
Los Angeles, CA 90014

HOURS PRINTED ON THEIR MUNU:
Sun-Thurs 11am-11pm
Fri & Sat 11am-2pm



Here's the rest of my Feb ART WALK Photos (food & cat heavy)

May Art Walk

I ended up staying in during May Art Walk last Thursday to relax and enjoy not being out in the noise and crowds. I was tempted to go out but figured there were other folks out taking photos and I was right!

Under the Alexandria has some shots here: May Art Walk

This just makes me realize I need to start getting out again.. I'm getting some cabin fever.

earthquake on art walk night

4.5 earthquake? and I missed it??

otoh, art walk was fun.. more later.

MORE ART!

Yes, there is art tonight at the Continental Gallery!


Running into neighbors can be fun & informative. I only found out around 9am this morning that there will be a showing in the Continental Gallery of work from the private collection of Gilmore Associates.

Previously the space was used by various installations from Dale Youngman and before that the LA ART Girls, Phantom Galleries, and EVFA (Edgar Varella Fine Arts). Eventually a restaurant is rumored to be going into the space, but for Art Walk what better use of empty space than to fill it with art?

Thanks Erik for the tip! ;P The Continental Gallery is of course located on the ground floor of the Continental Building.

Continental Building
408 S Spring Street
(Gallery is corner of 4th & Spring near Rocket Pizza & Warung)

Tall Ships (Festival of Sail)

Festival of Sail LA & more**

One of the fests I've enjoyed (and continue to) is the Festival of Sail which occurs along the Washington/ California coast. While I get the impression the festival is getting smaller: less ships to see this time around, and fewer booths, the ships are still worth heading out to San Pedro (or in the case of the 20th, San Diego).

HMS Surprise

The Tall Ships rotate each year between Pacific, Atlantic, and Great Lakes. They begin their Pacific tour usually out of Tacoma, onward eventually to San Francisco, Oxnard/Channel Islands, San Pedro, then San Diego. So you have many opportunities in the month of August to see & tour these beautiful ships. As for this year, your last chance is in San Diego. You didn't have anything planned next weekend did you? ;)

rest of my flickr set:
2008 Festival of Sail

USCG Barque Eagle

**bonus**
ART WALK

Robert Vargas sketches outside Stella Dottir's shop

I only have a few photos I took last week and they aren't nearly as good as others have taken, but here you go, four days after the fact:
August 08 Downtown Art Walk
As you can see, I didn't get around to very many galleries, and honestly didn't take many pictures.


SeanYoda Rouse IMHO, has a more complete and inclusive tour of art walk on his flickr however. He got to a LOT more places than I did, although he admits he didn't get to nearly everything. Still, I think his has a better representation of what art walk was like last week. Be sure & check it out:
SeanYoda's August Downtown Art Walk Set
Set includes still as well as video capture.

P.S. for Joe: Between Art Walk and the Festival of Sail, I was much more worn out walking than I anticipated and missed the Bike Meander Sunday. Instead I opted for running errands (which also it turns out wore me down) and watching some DVR'd Olympics. I didn't get back in time for the Nisei Week parade and frankly was too tired by the time I got back at around 8pm to worry about it much. I'm almost glad the weekend is over. =P Too much fun is exhausting!

Post-Art Walk update

Art Walk was made interesting by the substitution of "Hippodrome" the 1940s era Art Walk bus which was hosted by Kim Cooper & Esotouric (the folks that bring you the Black Dahlia tour and the "1947 Project Crime Bus").

You can see my flickr set of the JUNE 2008 Art Walk HERE. Most of them are out of focus just to warn you.

Here's a few of the 'better ones'

Hopping on the Art Walk bus in front of the Regent Theatre.


Running into Richard McDowell,(Downtown Poet) outside the Continental Gallery on Spring St.


Blues on the Bus


More Music on the street (outside Sphinx) as watched over by our fantastic LAPD. (seriously cool dudes let the fun go reasonably then asked for folks to shut the mini singing/drumming/ jamming down which they did with little to no protest at all). I'm glad this shot came out. The rest are rather frenetic.


After the Art Walk at Banquette & Old Bank DVD's patio.


****
Today SeanYoda had to go in for court duty yet again (but he got dismissed so he's done!) However, before he knew that, we went to LIME for lunch.. (now I owe him for 2 lunches!):

Sean tried the "free-range chicken" burrito this time (he had the carne asada last time):

yeah I know you can't tell much by the photo...

Thanks to Eric (white boy/ white dog) I decided to try the carne asada tacos:

I pretty much have it down to: "It was good. It was messy." (Repeat 3x)

****
Personal note: I got the office mostly set up (and am blogging from my desk). My dsl is up & running. I still need to connect the wi-fi router so I can *maybe* get some wifi when I'm on the MacBook. I'm not sure that I can get it all the way to Banquette though, as I can't get Sean's wifi up here.

It feels weird. I don't feel odd working up here at all. It's the night alone in the city. Maybe it'll be different once the cats are up here, but for now it feels more like a quiet office away from it all, which I guess is what I really wanted to begin with. That and a diet coke. ;)

2nd Thursday.. ART WALK!

Today is what is usually one of my favorite days of the month lately.. Art Walk day! It starts earlier in the day but many of the receptions (and the crowds)start at 6pm.. and wrap up around 9pm. Lots of opportunities to see some great (and not so great) art!

One of the new installations tonight is at Pharmaka Gallery; "Rebel Legacy - The Abstract in Latino Art" showing through July 31st. The show is curated by Kathy Gallegos of Avenue 50, (according to the Pharmaka website).

Robert Vargas is showing new work at the mezzanine level of the Spring Arts Collective tonight. There will also be live music at about 8pm.

Another place to check out if you haven't already is the Winstead-Adams Gallery which is owned by the 3BN's own Celia & Jim Winstead. Expect to see a great art supply store called "Raw Materials" opening in the same location in August. ;)

There's way more to see and it's listed on the Artwalk website at:
Downtown Art Walk

But don't forget there's more! Comedy Walk is also the 2nd Thursday and starts around 830-10pm (and you can link to it off the the official ArtWalk website as well).

Downtown Neighbors can also head over to the Los Angeles theatre if they haven't done so already and VOTE for your DLANC representatives. You have til about 8pm I think, (but don't quote me on that!) Just vote early! *grin*

ART WALK tonight! =)

Just a kind reminder that today is ART WALK DAY! =) From about 12-9pm you can see and experience an amazing variety of art, music and performance at various Downtown venues. Don't wait 'til 6pm.. Get out and enjoy this lovely weather we're having downtown.

Things ramp up tonight with many of the artists receptions starting at 6pm and Comedy Walk at 8pm. But wait! There's more.. Just remember to be kind to the gallery owners and curators. Leave the alcohol and your wine glasses on the INSIDE, please! =)

We want to keep having safe & eventful art walks, without the glass hitting the pavement. =) yay! Art Walk!

ps: don't forget all the yummy food establishments that stay open later during art walk! I can personally vouch for the yummy Shish Kabob place up Main Street.. one of my faves, not to mention Marisco's on Spring and Pitfire Pizza on Main & 2nd.. omg good stuff. I'm hungry now, so no more updates from me til later!

April Art Walk (or maybe in some cases: 50 bottles of beer on the sidewalk)

I just want to preface this by saying not everyone was drinking, and yes, I do imbibe myself,(not when I'm 'working') but I do enjoy a glass now & again and maybe some good microbrews.. so with that prefaced... my little comentary on the larger number of folks drinking at Art Walk..

Temporary gallery space at the Rowan Lofts (open during part of art walk but not associated with art walk). This photo has nothing to do with my post, btw.. just thought it a good photo.

Thursday found me at the April Art Walk. I didn't see a lot, but I did get around and basically spent most of the night looking inward to the galleries. So many people! Art Walk had many more people than usual,(and Art Walk is usually pretty busy). However, this night there were so many people in for all the different goings-on by 9pm or so it was easy to see that these new folks were drinking and clogging the doors and sidewalks. So much though, that it kind of put a damper on my good mood.

I'm glad folks are coming downtown, and I'm glad they're attending Art Walk. I just wish they didn't drink so damn much! I wish if they did, that they would just have some sort of dignity and respect the rules that have been set up to not only protect them from getting arrested for open containers, but they would also respect the rights of the gallery owners to not have drunk gallery patrons.

Wine is for imbibing, not for getting shit-faced drunk. I think there's a difference in there somewhere. Your mother isn't here to tell you your limits, it's your job to know when to stop.

speaking of happy things..

HAPPY ART WALK DAY!!! =)
EDIT/UPDATE 1030am:
ps: my cel phone is working again.. AND I have a new local number!!!