If it ends up being Pittsburgh, you'll want to be within about half a mile of this location. Well, if you're planing on on leaning on me/Cosma. I suppose Cosma hasn't chimed in.
Thanks, heebs.
Now everyone take the survey! I did.
Allow me to be the first to thank heebie for undertaking this organizing nightmare.
Sure. At the meetup. The location of which I will disclose for the sum of one trillion dollars (plat coin accepted)
So if you agree to host this there's like a droit de seigneur situation going on, right?
It's too late to add LA to the survey, Halford.
It might have been useful to have left in the location question, for the future reference. Sigh. I wanted to use my new knowledge!
But thanks, Heebie!
You now have knowledge as to where the rest of us are going to be in the future?
Why does the real survey still have Eudoxia and all that crap?
Apparently someone meddled with it before heebie redacted the link in the other thread.
I would poll the Unfoggetariat in comments about what I should do with a day free in LA on Friday but I think the answer's going to have to be "spend a big chunk of it in my hotel room reading grad school applicaitons".
Staying in a hotel downtown, reading grad school applications. Possibly meeting a friend for dinner or something. Possibly going to the Getty or MOCA or the tar pits or the Museum of Jurassic Technology, but I don't think I can fit in more than one touristy thing, realistically, because I'm falling behind on reading these damned applications.
Don't bother going to Ink Sac, which was underwhelming.
Then I fly to SF and spend another day in a hotel reading applications. Or hopefully not. I have much more well-formed meeting-people-and-drinking plans there.
Do you, now. I bet VW is coming down, or something.
If you don't have a car, for an outing, I would go to MOCA and walk around downtown a bit, take Angels Flight to Grand Central Market, and get tacos. Depends a little on exactly where downtown your hotel is. If you do have a car I have other suggestions and I can suggest some downtown restaurants or other ideas. Also, you are close to the homeless-abusing CrossFit gym that will change your life.
Okay, I fixed the survey. Nobody fuck it up again, okay?
Also feel free to find my on the other place (should be obvious, but if not let me know) and I can give you some ideas.
Speaking of the other place, it still wants me to befriend Martha Nussbaum, but now it's also asking me to friend lots of cute young women associated with Iranian universities, with whom I have no friends in common. What's up with that?
14: Does that mean you're free for some portion of Friday night? Meetup!
Why choose? Have a meetup at Essear's hotel, at which the attendees collectively evaluate grad school apps to his department! With liveblogging, of course.
8- good luck finding someone in this crowd that would apply to.
23: That reminds me of an acquaintance of mine who joined a Slobodan Milosevich fan group on fb, hoping to get to know the attractive Serbian women in the group. It didn't work out.
Has he tried the Ratko Mladić fan group?
How many times are we allowed to complete the survey?
I've completed it a few times so far, but I'm probably done. It seems like inevitably these sort of things get corrupted when someone creates a bot to rig the voting or something.
hahaha. Don't do that. No really, don't do that.
That reminds me of an acquaintance of mine who joined a Slobodan Milosevich fan group on fb, hoping to get to know the attractive Serbian women in the group.
I was about issue a scathing moral condemnation of this, but then I remembered I once cheered with a group of Duke basketball fans for the same reason, so it's a pot/kettle situation at best.
Oh, I didn't know there were rules. Hmm. If I completed it once with every permutation of voting possibilities other than the one that I chose, would that offset the duplicate results?
I never did get around to emailing as promised, but in the event that it's held in Baltimore Fells point, Federal Hill and Locust Point are all good. Mt. Washington is charming but suburban (and I'm not sure whether the excellent local tavern has reopened yet after burning down.
Anything west of Charles street or north of the inner harbor and south of Johns Hopkins is dis-recommended.
Hamden would probably be OK on price but middling on safety. It does, however, provide excellent hipster mocking opportunities.
To orient myself, I demand to know which police division these are in, who the relevant major is, and whether or not they are in Marlo's territory.
While my Baltimore knowledge is fifteen years out of date, I think Federal Hill or Fells Point make the most sense -- easy walking distance to the Inner Harbor, short trip to AVAM, many bars. You'd have to get in a car to experience Al Pacino's Pizza, the finest Egyptian pizzeria named after an Oscar winner in the Baltimore metro area.
My friends who live in Baltimore all live in either Hamden or Charles Village.
@35
To orient myself, I demand to know which police division these are in, who the relevant major is, and whether or not they are in Marlo's territory.
Don't do that. No really, don't do that.
But how else will urple get to be Hottest Young Journalist on Unfogged?
even though i wont attend i filled out the survey too
AcademicLurker: Is Mount Vernon part of the dis-recommended area in 33?
@42
I would put Mt. Vernon in the "nice to visit during the day but not great for walking around at night" category. At night it's fine for taking a cab to a restaurant, or maybe if you stay strictly on Charles street all the time.
It's not a combat zone or anything, but for wandering around after dark it's not as safe as Fells Point or Federal Hill.
Thank you---I was wondering how much it had improved lately. I can't think of a city neighborhood better than the ones already mentioned.
So are we like renting an Elks Lodge or something for the shindig? Trashing some Airbnb rental seems like a bad idea.
Mount Vernon's not that bad, unless its gotten worse since the 90's, which I doubt. I think, except for East Baltimore, West Baltimore, South Baltimore, and parts of North Baltimore, walking around at night isn't really a problem.
What's the voting looking like? Can we get some early precincts/unreliable exit polling?
In case people missed it, Cosma has volunteered his house again in the other thread.
Essear: Halford is spot on in 20. To expand on his suggestions, print out a map from Angels Walk LA. Also, I'm renting a writer's warren near downtown and would grab breakfast or lunch if you want to take a break and hum New Pornographers songs or something.
49: I'm not far from downtown, either, and could probably make time for something like this, too.
As far as recommendations go, I had a great french dip and sazerac at Cole's on 6th a couple of weeks ago. Also, if you make it to the Getty, there's a terrific early-Renaissance-Florence exhibit there right now--a mix of painting and illuminated manuscripts--that only runs for another month or so.
I guess it is a bit out of the way from the rest of downtown, but I always loved Union Station in LA. Was recently at the Cincy Union Terminal turned museum. Old train stations are almost uniformly great both from the outside and the inside.
I really enjoyed La Brea, but you need to know that the area around the museum is at least as interesting as the museum itself. Wander around and you can see big bubbles forming, old excavations, news spots where the tar has started coming out of the middle of a field (look for pylons), olds spots where the tar has melted the pylon, etc. Find a stick and poke the tar.
LACMA's right next to the tar pits, too, not to mention a bunch of great food trucks on Wilshire.
Every now and again a food truck wanders too near the tar and becomes trapped.
51.2: Isn't it fun? I took Nia and her best friend through the Children's Museum and Natural History Museum last weekend and they were marveling at the giant flag, of all things in the rotunda to find impressive!
55: Resist the impulse to leap upon the food truck to grab a free meal.
Sounds like I should make an effort to get to the Gettty before I move.
YES. (And don't forget the Villa.)
This is making me think we should have a meetup. But not on Friday, to spite Essear.
|| We need an orange titled post, asap. It's snowing like the Dickens here, has been all day. A great change from yesterday, which was dark and rainy. Our ski hill said this morning that people should call their employers and invoke their Powder Clause, what with the 14" of new snow. I thought about it -- and the wife did go with a friend -- but none of that requires an orange title, obviously. I was just checking the weather.com site to see what was on for tomorrow and learned that we are in "Winter Storm Gandolf." THIS MADNESS MUST BE STOPPED!! |>
Winter Storm Gandolf is not acceptable. Whoever named that needs to be tarred and feathered.
Whoever named that needs to be tarred and feathered.
Clearly it was Grima Wormtongue.
Wait, it really is Gandolf with an 'o' not the 'a'?
What's next? Will they start naming rainy days in Los Angeles? Will the start naming high pressure systems that cause clear days in Los Angeles? How long til they auction the naming rights? (Remember folks, it's the roto-rooter sunny day tomorrow, don't forget your sunscreen).
It's Weather Channel bullshit. Nothing official, BTW.
65 -- With an O. Presumably The Well at the World's End is under a different regime than the Tolkien books.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gandolf
Further to 62: If people were interested in a museum/gardens meetup, I could probably get five to ten into the Huntington for free.
Here's TWC's rationale. They don't quite come out and say "ratings," but close enough.
we are in "Winter Storm Gandolf."
Hasn't quite hit us yet, supposed to later this afternoon. I work Sat-Tues 2-midnight and godamn the temps are going to be brutal once the storm passes. This is not going to help with the cold/flu crap I've had the last couple weeks.
Meanwhile, mid to upper 70s this weekend here and some trees are starting to bloom out of sheer confusion.
We're not confused. This is sex for us.
||
nosflow's hometown is the most pedestrian-hostile place I know, and now two different taxi companies have refused to pick me up on the campus there and the third is running so late I'm suspecting they won't show.
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When I first heard of it, I assumed it was only *really* big winter storms that would get names, but when Draco and Euclid (I hate that I know recall those) bedeviled my pre- and post-Christmas travel a bit I understood the true nature of the trajectory we were on.
Winter storm Orko will be like 60 degrees and there are two drops of rain.
Winter storm Hominahominahomina is going to bring 60-degree temperatures to most of Pennsylvania this weekend. Maybe we'll get one of those monsoons too.
I really need the chance to get a couple of good runs in.
71: I love the Huntington, and it's expensive compared to other museums, so that would be kind of amazing.
20 and c.: I was going to say you should go to Clifton's Cafeteria instead of Grand Central Market, but it turns out Clifton's is closed! Sad.
What part of downtown will you be in? If in the vicinity of MOCA, then I agree with the suggestions in 20 - the cathedral, the concert hall, the library and Little Tokyo are all right there as well.
If you'll be near Union Station (and it's quite convenient -- if you take the FlyAway bus from LAX, it will take you right there, and then you can take the subway from Union Station to your eventual destination when you're done looking around the area), you can go to Olvera Street which is touristy, but has lots of lovely historic buildings and churros filled with cajeta. Plus Phillippe's is just around the corner.
They do name rainy days in LA. They're still waiting to use "Adam".
essear should go to the toy district and load up on cheap crap that blinks.
Also, probably no one will agree with me on this, but the cafe at the top of the downtown courthouse, at 111 N. Hill, is kind of great. You have to go through a metal detector to get into the building, plus like a zillion escalators (don't take the elevators), but then you have a beautiful view of the entire city and cheap, very decent cafeteria food. You have to eat on laminate tables surrounded by stressed-out lawyers though.
churros filled with cajeta
I now realize that my trip to LA was WASTED.
Actually, maybe I'll just bring my jar of cajeta to the place that makes fresh churros.
You could do an around 5 mile walking tour that includes:
Toy District
Pinata District
Fashion District
Jewelry District
Flower District
Seafood District
Warehouse District
Produce District
Arts District
If there are that many of them in such a small space, they can't really be districts.
Also, probably no one will agree with me on this, but the cafe at the top of the downtown courthouse, at 111 N. Hill, is kind of great.
This is arguably a first ballot candidate for the contrarian hall of fame.
87. You left out Plastic Household Goods District and Cardboard Boxhome District
Oh, there's also a bong district (or at least a one block stretch that houses bong wholesalers).
89. I knew I would get pushback on that, because people are crazy.
I really like the Huntington's grounds, but I've been disappointed by the exhibits the couple of times I've been there for that.* Last time I went was with my sister and her kids and they do have a great children's area
*I've been there for research too and they're fantastic for that.
That cafeteria is where you go to eat mediocre-to-terrible food surrounded by lawyers telling distraught people that their children are getting taken away.
But no judgments if you're in to that kind of thing.
"You'll never see your children again, I'm afraid. But I bet they didn't look as awesome as this view!"
I mean, in terms of cafeteria food, it's not awesome like the LAPD police academy cafeteria food is awesome, but the breakfast really is totally decent.
And if the breakfast is early enough, the parents there will still be hoping the judge will rule their way!
jms had better start a tour group. "The best coffee is here at the methadone clinic!"
Also, isn't family court at Central Civil West, near Westlake? I've never seen any distraught parents at the downtown courthouse.
101. Would you believe, there's actually a really nice patio at the methadone clinic near my office. I mean, there are always a lot of smokers, but still. Cape jasmine, stone benches, it's really pleasant!
91: I believe you mean Water Pipe District
102: Because you've been enjoying the view?
(Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer don't know the courthouses and, except for 6 weeks in 1997, have never lived in LA itself. No comment I make should be construed as tourism or visit advice.)
Wow, I totally derailed this thread. Sorry, Pittsburgh!
No, essear, I think you show an admirable commitment to the Palm Springs sex grottoes.
102 -- second and part of the third floor are family court.
The view from the Tom Bradley room at the top of City Hall is excellent and open to the public, although there's no food there. Still, the Homeboy Cafe on the second floor has good fresh Mexican food, including a tasty, squeaky nopales salad.
The cafeteria at the DWP is yummy and old school (pudding!) but there's no view. The food is better at the cafeteria on the 10th floor of the Gas Company building, but there's no outside, just decent views through windows.
71!
Crikey, I've never been to the DWP cafeteria! I'll have to fix that. Re. the Gas Company cafeteria, the food is okay, but the place is not in any manner special. Unfortunately, the downtown municipal utilities cafeteria in which I've spent the most time is the one at the water district, which has virtually no redeeming qualities.
Also, 110.3 gets it exactly right.
So, like, we're going to have a meetup at the Men's Central Jail visitors canteen, right?
You know it! It's like basically the same thing as the Huntington Gardens, only on a smaller scale.
More seriously, I'd be up for a trip to the Huntington, though I'm drawing the line at turning the meetup into a formal tea party.
The Huntington is probably too far away for me, but you shouldn't schedule around me anyway since the odds of my making an LA meetup in the next month are pretty low.
81, 110, 113: As long as it's a weekend day and people give me a bit of advance notice, it's honestly no problem for me to arrange something. I love the place, and it sounds like fun.
93: I've had (very mildly) mixed experiences with temporary exhibits at the Huntington museums, but the British portraiture collection at the mansion and the American art gallery are worth the trip all by themselves, imo. The Treasures manuscript gallery is also reliably stunning, if you like that kind of thing.
The science manuscripts room is my favorite.
The current art exhibit at the H is by some good friends, so no mean words please.
I thought the railroad exhibit (last summer?) was not all it could have been. The other times I've been there were in the mid-2000s.
Henry Greene was a junkie and a sellout! Charles was worse!
116: Where the manuscripts are roomed by theme? Also awesome. Semi-relatedly, I especially like the Audubon room in the Treasures gallery, where they have elephant-folio-sized reproductions from Birds of America all over the walls.
117: The new contemporary art display, in the mansion? That's actually one of the few exhibits I haven't spent much time with yet, but I'd love to check it out.
119: The Gamble House sure is cool, though.
120.2 -yes. 120.1.b- yes. 120.3 -- yes. You know, if I hadn't mistimed the market, I could have bought a G+G home.
This one. OK, I might not REALLY have bought it.
Wow, there are a lot of famous things in that museum, for a museum I've never heard of.
Maybe I guessed wrong about who Halford knows.
Let's just have Unfoggedecawhateveron at the Huntington. We could pick one of the free days!
123: And actually a shockingly sizable chunk of otherwise buildable land for close-in LA--120 acres.
123: And actually a shockingly sizable chunk of otherwise buildable land for close-in LA--120 acres.
The whole complex is 207 (!) acres. 120 is just for the gardens.
Pasadena values their regionally inappropriate lack of density, Stormcrow.
The Huntington family had, like, a lot of money.
And actually a shockingly sizable chunk of otherwise buildable land for close-in LA--120 acres.
Lot of huge ranches out there back in the day. The arboretum in Arcadia is about 120 acres as well and is the remnants of Lucky Baldwin's estate (his cottage known to the older folks as the cottage on Fantasy Island).
South Pasadena and southish Pasadena are pretty luxe burbs. It is much more dense in Pasadena proper. Not like some parts of LA, bu pretty fair.
The H-ton s actually in San Marino, not Pasadena. San Marino, motherfuckers.
There's also Santa Anita, which is giant (although not actually in Pasadena either, admittedly).
Hey, Santa Anita, great idea. I knew I should let the blog plan my weekend.
It is a great idea as well as being giant, yes.
Sadly, the PCC flea was last weekend, you could have made a day of it.
Did I tell y'all that when I was in SoCal last summer, we stayed in a house on the street where much of Back to the Future was filmed? There's a semi-steady stream of film tourists.
122's website makes me question my last seven months of Northeast LA house-hunting. (Fingers crossed, it ends with yesterday's escrow check. But it's not our first escrow check.)
|| Got about 4 in of snow down in town over the last 12 hours, still coming down -- not bad, but hardly worthy of a name. WRT snow higher up, the wife made a hand sign almost halfway up her thigh, and said 'awesome.' High tomorrow 19, low 5. |>
I don't think I can attend unless it happens to be one of the write-in candidates that's Boston or nearby. Providence? Worcester? Portland ME?
94: I worked opposite the family court for most of London for two and a half years. Every other week on average, there would be a great shouting from outside, and the whole office would rush to the windows facing the courthouse for the free entertainment, as the tribes involved in a case faced off in the street. It was usually two or three women catfighting while the rest of the gang hung round the edges, yelling abuse, or else cried with embarrassment at the behaviour of their relatives.
Last week there was a story in the newspaper about a judge complaining that they heard family cases without any security support, not cops, not ushers, not bugger all, and they were concerned about eventually getting stabbed.
Shit yeah! I like parsimon's idea. Unfoggedecadeacon at the WORCESTER CENTRUM!
the wife made a hand sign almost halfway up her thigh, and said 'awesome.'
Uxorious mouseover text.
145: Man, Worcester has probably not rightfully done anything enough to incur the degree of distaste I have for it, but there it is: distaste.
Though I haven't even thought about the Worcester Centrum in like 25 years. I think I saw Joe Perry there, during that brief period when Aerosmith was broken up.
That was my first concert. Huh. More than 25 years.
I saw Rush there! This'll be awesome! Plus, there's a train now!
Providence RI is probably a more commenter attendance producing locale than BMore. But whatever, I'm holding out for Palm Springs and the literal sex grottoes.
There's a train that goes to Worcester? From where? Springfield? (heh. heh.)
Nah, but I've spent various amounts of time in Worcester for all kinds of reasons, and I still found it kind of a sucky place. Had to rescue my brother from a club there once at midnight. A couple of friends went to whatever those colleges are there - I even went to a frat party once. Had my interview for Harrad there. My family used to shop at whatever that big shopping complex is called. My first boyfriend's band had gigs there. Bleh, Worcester.
Too bad Flippanter's on vacation with Lunchy.
Had my interview for Harrad there.
Oh, wow, I'd never heard of that. I, uh, had an impression that you'd adopted "Harrad" for Hahvahd, but maybe I've been missing something all along!
I did discuss, with the alumna who interviewed me, the pet turtle her roommate back in the day had kept. We also discussed the shift for libraries from a card catalog system to computerized records. So she seemed nice, anyway. I don't know what she was actually supposed to be doing.
I just threw Worcester in there as recognizable crappy place no one would actually think was a serious suggestion. May I also suggest Fall River? Or how about Brockton?
I don't know what she was actually supposed to be doing.
My impression is that the main function of those interviews is to make alumni feel good about themselves and the school in hopes that they'll donate more money.
I just threw Worcester in there as recognizable crappy place no one would actually think was a serious suggestion. May I also suggest Fall River? Or how about Brockton?
Wasilla!
Fall River has some great food, and a battleship!
I just threw Worcester in there as recognizable crappy place no one would actually think was a serious suggestion.
Oh, I know. It just gave me a laugh and a jolt of recognition, trip down memory lane which I've just indulged, so that was kind of nice.
Too bad Flippanter's on vacation with Lunchy.
I believe the anniversary of their first date is soon.
29 Jan, 2012: Flip informs us reprobates that he's met two women, and mentions that one of them suggested meeting again for a meal later in the week.
30 Jan, 2012: She suggests lunch, and later in the thread heebie suggests that we reprobates refer to her as "Lunchy".
I suggest that those of us reprobates who are friends with Flip at the other place all wish him a happy anniversary on the 29th.
He's told her about this place by now, right?
My image of Flippanter as very reserved is such that I could almost believe it if I were told that he hadn't told her his first name.
One does enjoy the occasional friend recommendation, and wonders what certain persons who are said to enjoy the midday meal might make of them.
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world to use Facebook.
146: How can you even think that when we have this just 3 comments earlier: usually two or three women catfighting while the rest of the gang hung round the edges, yelling abuse, or else cried with embarrassment
Providence willing, I'd probably make a meetup in Providence. But not Provence.
If Providence guides us otherwise, perhaps we can find agreement with Concord.
Cifirret. Retsecrow. Man.
Nope, it doesn't work.
Don't make fun of the disabled, teo. It's unkind.
I am instead pointing out your mistake in a totally humorless fashion.
If it makes you feel better, VW, I considered making fun of you.
We're having the party in 'Nam? Because people couldn't agree between Pittsburgh and Baltimore?
At least it'll increase the chances of alameida showing up.
Aside from the fact that almost nobody could go, that would be amazing. Ha Long Bay meetup!
I would definitely go for that. Better yet, Cambodia. "Hey, you don't talk to nosflow. You listen to him. He's enlarged my mind. He's a poet warrior in the classical sense."
True, the flights are expensive, but once you're there it's cheap. You could rent some amazing mansion for about $30 a night per person. And there's lots to do. Those of us who are more contemplative can stay indoors and read André Gide while smoking opium. Those of us who are a bit more active can take alameida tiger-hunting.
Have we settled on Narnia then? Or at least Hong Kong?
Narnia in June would be a possibility at least for Unfogged East (me and alameida).
I thought Unfogged East was you, ttaM, chris y, et al.?
Yeah. That's how we usually refer to it. Ginger Y, Alex, Tierce, nworB, etc
Unfogged east of Suez, where the best is like the worst.
I thought Unfogged Easter was when we celebrated Ogged's return to blogging.
||
(Violating the SOBC somewhat...) Hey ttaM, did you find out about the Berberian Sound Studio soundtrack from Spotify too? Or is this a thing people (other than me) knew about?
|>
I see that neither "Berberian Sound Studio" or its soundtrack has anything to do with Cathy Berberian. What is the world coming to?!
191: Infinitely preferable to the Unfoggedipede.
re: 192
I like Broadcast, anyway, the band. Who did the soundtrack. So I read a review of the soundtrack and knew what to expect.
If you don't know it, their 'Noises Made By People' album is fantastic. Much more vocals, though, obviously, as sadly their singer died before the Berberian Sound Studio stuff was done.
This:
http://open.spotify.com/album/4vm6U9WwZvHUKaCNYRj9Bv
Non spotify links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNcKMmPC4Rk
[possibly their poppiest song?]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ZJ-N750Bk
Both from that album.
189:Unfogged east of Suez
It could just be a dodge like the film classic, Krakatoa, East of Java. (Krakatoa is west of Java by normal accounting.)
What happened with this? Where is the location and when?