Follow them on Twitter (@takosher). Just don’t ask for cheese on your tacos.

She careened me towards the white picket fence at June and De Longpre, pulling my hair. I whipped her back around, kicking her in the stomach. We continued as I screamed from within the far reaches of my lungs to the passing cars who probably thought they were witnessing a chick fight, what with my female mugger.

It’s comforting to know that events like these are still taking place while the LAPD is running radar on Coldwater & Burbank to catch soccer moms speeding on their way to work.

We’re glad you’re OK, Esther. Thank you for sharing your story with us, and for standing your ground in your new neighborhood.

There is a sweet gem in that arm called Culver West-Alexander Park and if you are in the neighborhood and looking for a great spot to spend an afternoon, you will love this one.

I remember this park from the very early 90′s as I used to work in the Marina. The big field seen here used to have a baseball diamond and one year I spent many an early morning practicing softball with our company team. (Go Hurlers!) Even without a baseball diamond, you can NOT get bored at this park. I dare you!

There are basketball and tennis courts, BBQ pits and picnic tables, tons of jungle gyms and swings and even a community center. If you are a Westsider, check this spot out, bring the kids and grandparents and a big picnic. You never know what you’ll see here.

How to get there (click on the image to go to the Google Map):

You want sports? We got sports!  One tennis and two paddle tennis courts (this is where my honey and I play a lot.)

Here’s a close up of the mural at the end of the tennis court. It’s like being inside Wii Tennis!

In case you were wondering:

And also:

This happy mural greets  you when you park on Moore street. Handball courts (three) are here on the backside of the tennis court.

Wider shot of Basketball and handball courts with informal running path in front.

Close on the Mural at the Basketball court:

Plenty of stuff for the kids to clamber over and around:

And when it’s time to eat, there are plenty of shady spots to spread out and grill up some yummy picnic food.

There is plenty of parking on Moore Street and also in a small lot near the jungle gym/tennis court side of the park.

Alas, Fido will need to stay on the designated path. But it’s a sweet path!

And if you need to just chill in a grassy, shady spot, there is plenty of that too.

Read more about Richard Alexander, after whom the park was named. (Click picture for bigger version.)

Stop by some time! It’s a gorgeous little park and it’s all yours.

The LA Times takes a more modest approach and has a one day food and wine festival on Sunday at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood.  Our local national paper fills the food truck void – food trucks are conspicuously absent from The Taste of Beverly Hills – and gathers a bunch for their festival, including Border Grill’s and The Buttermilk Truck.  There also will be cooking demos (including one on cocktail mixology (which also will not include Tom Cruise)), and, depending on your tolerance for Zooey Deschanel and her love for cotton, you will love or hate She & Him’s bonus concert at the end of the night.  Tickets are cheaper than The Taste of Beverly Hills but, then again, so are the restaurants featured (which is not a bad thing, just a point of difference between the two fests).  Goldstar pulls through for this one too – get half-price tickets here.

It’s Tuesday.  Just a few more days, and you can take the time to eat.  And eat again.

Exclusive OHM stills courtesy of Conor Horgan. Click to enlarge.

On the face of it, the world of One Hundred Mornings is about as far from the daily life of an average Angeleno as you can get. Set in the lush Irish countryside, OHM looks in on two couples sharing a mountain cabin after an unidentified disaster or chain of events leads to a total infrastructure collapse. It’s like an apocalypse only quieter. Todd Konrad of Independent Film Quarterly describes it this way:

If Harold Pinter did a rewrite of The Road, it could easily resemble One Hundred Mornings; eschewing multi-million dollar CGI special-effects and giant fireballs for an emphasis on actual story and character, Irish filmmaker Conor Horgan and cast craft an intimate look at the emotional and spiritual toll the apocalypse could bring to one’s life.

Having read an earlier version of the script (full disclosure: I’m lucky enough to call director Conor Horgan a dear friend), I’d elaborate that the film dramatizes, not just the toll of a societal breakdown, but by extension, the function of “society” itself to distract and distance us from ourselves. The word “apocalypse” comes from the Greek word for “to uncover” or “reveal,” and Conor Horgan’s One Hundred Mornings, in some respects, simply lifts the lid off our petroleum-based, strung-out-on-technology culture to show us what’s left when we strip away the lights and the cars and the iGadgets.

What I know is this, the film is beautifully shot and well written and acted, and it’s playing at the Downtown Independent Theatre for a week beginning September 16, thanks to the WorkBook Project’s Discovery and Distribution Award. (It will also be screening September 24 in San Francisco as part of the SF Irish Film Festival.)

You should buy a ticket. Not only will the film be great, but when Conor is world famous, you’ll be able to say “Oh yeah, I saw his first feature in downtown L.A. before it had U.S. distribution.” Because, you know, the world hasn’t yet collapsed, and in the interim between now and the apocalypse, there’s little that beats being able to say you knew about something really cool before most other people did.

Blank Canvas at 7 PM.

Imagine two blank canvases on a sidewalk.  Each started by just one artist then letting the brushes loose on whomever happened to stop by who expressed an interest in what we were up to.  We, as in yours truly and artist Heather Shaw started the ball rolling with the blank canvases by painting in the under color blocks and letting it rip from there.  Then we switched and started the collaborative painting portion of the live demo at the Monrovia Association of Fine Art’s last Art Walk of the summer.

We had no plan on what to do, it was all predetermined to let it be spontaneous explorations of color, line and contrast.  As each passer by stopped to gawk we invited them to take a brush and join us.  We had random people and some accomplished artists join in adding bits and pieces sometimes radically changing the direction a painting was going.  Kids even stopped in and they saw through what the grown ups had done and started their own direction with faces in the chaos of one of the paintings.

Artist Tyger Jimmy adds in floating martini glasses.

Hyperactive artist Rousanna Berberian attacks the canvas with bold reds and blacks to alter the composition.

Nate takes a stab at adding details to another set of martini glasses.

Passerby Louis decides a pond needs to be added to the painting.

Couple of random kids see through the vibrant chaos created by Rousanna and make smiley faces.

The final paintings once dried will be auctioned off at a MAFA event with the proceeds going to fund the various art or art education events in the local communities.

Finally, for those of you who missed the Summer Art Walks you can get a feel for what transpires in this documentary shot at the July Art Walk. It was done by Gloria Locke for a project she was working on for SCVTV CHANNEL 20, from SCV-Arts & Entertainment, an art organization in the Santa Clarita Valley.

All pics by me, do embiggen a little, forgive the quality as they were done with my trusty old cell phone.

As Tenacious D would say it, “This is just a tribute.”

And tribute-worthy they both are: Shaky Alibi for what is arguably the best waffle I’ve ever had (and let’s be honest – Friends, I’ve had some waffles), and Travis – well, for just being Travis, goddammit.

… Yes, It’s been a long time between posts for me. Let’s just say I’ve been busy and move forward.

Fitting my return post is about food, and about how just when you think you already know everything great about the Wonderful Town of Ours, somebody turns you on to another way to eat a waffle.

At Shaky Alibi you can have them sweet OR savory, and both are pretty freaking orgasmic. And those globules of sugar nestled in the waffle ensure that syrup need not apply. Which for my mind makes this Health Food.

The place was packed today at 11am, but by the time Travis and I were on our second double espresso it was completely empty. Suddenly.

WTF? I had a shower – turns out they RAN OUT OF DOUGH. But they still have the shots of Drinking Chocolate – yeah I said it.

The bad news is there will be no waffles til tomorrow (the dough takes a day and a half to make; I know because I offered them my kitchen), but the good news is the chick is driving in a fresh load of sea salt caramel ice cream from Santa Barbara as of noon today….

Oh those sugar nodules....

You might be wondering how we chose the landmarks for the posts. In true blogging.la style, any author who wanted to participate could pick any they wanted to write about. A small group of us came up with a list during a brainstorm session, but those were simply suggestions. I definitely see a subsequent series or two in the future since there is so much more to explore. Stayed tuned for that.

We hope you’ve had as much fun reading our collection as we did writing it. We’re curious to know what you consider to be a great L.A. landmarks. Click on your favorites here and I’ll post the results sometime next week. You can also let us know what you think we missed on this round.

Men of stature. Men of soap. John A. Forthmann Sr., Horace Forthmann, and J.J. Bergin, with the Los Angeles Soap Company.

The year was 1874.

Photo from the USC Digital Library