Month: June 2023

What to do, see and eat in Mendocino, California

What to do, see and eat in Mendocino, California

Published by Sam Flores

There will be no cell signal during most of your drive along the coast of Mendocino, and half the time, there won’t even be a radio station to tune in to. All you’re left to do is slow down and take in your surroundings. Yet you won’t be complaining. This stretch of Highway 1 in Northern California is full of twists and turns, revealing a rocky shoreline on one side and giant redwoods on the other. The view is ever-changing, equally breathtaking when the sun is shining and when the coastal fog descends. Mendocino coast starts from Gualala in the south, where it borders Sonoma County, and ends around Sinkyone Wilderness State Park in the north, bordering Humboldt County. The fastest way for Angelenos to get there is to fly to Santa Rosa Airport and drive two hours across the 101 Freeway (the new-ish budget airline Avelo flies from Burbank to Santa Rosa, starting from $44 each way). Upon your arrival to the coastal town, you might be surprised by the lack of modern Bay …

Where to find the best tinned fish in Los Angeles

Where to find the best tinned fish in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

Octopus in butter with lemon and dill. Mussels in spicy escabeche. Smoked sardines with heather and chamomile. The tinned fish of today goes far beyond Chicken of the Sea. Canned seafood traces back to early 19th century France, when Nicola Alpert, known as the “father of canning,” introduced the concept as a way of preserving large amounts of food during the Napoleonic Wars. Affordable and utilitarian, canning quickly caught on across Europe, especially in the seafood-rich regions of Portugal and Spain. Conservas, as they’re called in the Iberian Peninsula, preserve fish in oils and sauces that bring out its natural textures and flavors, and are considered a delicacy. “Over the pandemic, it became one of those foods that you could have in your pantry that was kind of a luxury,” said Kathy Sidell, owner of Saltie Girl, a seafood-focused restaurant with locations in London, Boston and West Hollywood that flaunts one of the longest tinned fish lists in the United States. “It changed the paradigm of how we think about tinned fish.” New, women-led brands …

Where to see 4th of July fireworks and drone shows in Los Angeles

Where to see 4th of July fireworks and drone shows in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

Independence Day is quickly approaching, which means it’s time to bust out your red, white and blue accessories. Get your grill setup ready because life, liberty and the pursuit of barbecue await you. Across L.A., cities and towns are gearing up for extravagant Fourth of July festivities with parades, musical performances, fireworks and fierce competitions among patriotic pooches. Whether you plan to stay local or event hop, here is a list of places in and around L.A. County where you can celebrate the nation’s 248th birthday — and have a blast while you’re at it. (Events start this weekend and continue through next week.) Many traditional fireworks shows have been replaced by quieter, less environmentally damaging drone light shows, but there are still plenty of dazzling fireworks displays that are expected to comply with environmental rules. Pro tip: Before you head out the door, check for any Fourth of July event restrictions, postponements or cancellations. Source link

Best L.A. parks for when you want to chill alone or with friends

Best L.A. parks for when you want to chill alone or with friends

Published by Sam Flores

Loafing is the most popular lesson of my 20-year teaching career. I got the idea from Walt Whitman, who writes in “Song of Myself”: I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. This made me think students might enjoy loafing — especially when I realized that they didn’t know what loafing means. So one day we learned by doing. I took my English class at Grand Arts High School in downtown out to a vast lawn on campus perfect for loafing, which I told the teens meant doing anything they enjoyed so long as it was low-key. They loved having the freedom to sit or lie on the grass, looking up at the sky or down at bugs and tiny flowers, having heartfelt conversations, freeing their minds. For the rest of the school year, students asked if we could go loafing again. My answer was yes. We loafed by flying kites, blowing bubbles, tossing seed balls. The academic justification was twofold: (1) learning the …

The best stores to shop for Midcentury Modern furniture in Los Angeles

The best stores to shop for Midcentury Modern furniture in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

Whether you’re looking for an introductory Saarinen tulip chair or a $16,000 Mario Bellini modular sofa, there’s no better place to shop for Midcentury Modern furniture than Los Angeles. The golden age of furniture design (which spans the late 1940s through the early 1970s) is more popular today than ever thanks to its simplicity and adaptability, says Christian Boehr, owner of the vintage showroom Atomic Threshold in Monrovia. “The nicely proportioned scale, along with classic lines and great build quality, allows these pieces to be well integrated in current design schemes without being overpowering or too homogenized,” says Boehr. In other words, Midcentury Modern furnishings — many of which are still in production today because of their timelessness — are suitable for any type of decor. Although you can shop for Modernist furnishings online, via Facebook Marketplace, at local flea markets and on Instagram, there is nothing like being able to test out furniture in real life to see how it looks and feels. “People like to come in, see the items and try them …

Turner Classic Movies holds our cinematic past. Does it have a future under Warner Bros. Discovery?

Turner Classic Movies holds our cinematic past. Does it have a future under Warner Bros. Discovery?

Published by Sam Flores

You must remember this: Turner Classic Movies is one of the few surviving cable TV institutions that cannot be taken for granted. It was never a popular destination, not that anyone ever expected a channel allocated to old films to be. But it was and is a lighthouse of history and artistry in a gale of middling noise, featuring thoughtfully collated collections of seminal works made by and starring cinematic legends. For almost 30 years TCM has offered something other channels don’t – a focus on movies that aren’t in circulation anywhere else and their influence on the people who create great TV and film. The technical methods that make prestige shows that stand above the rest of the rabble weren’t plucked from the ether. The directors, producers and writers employing them learned from filmmakers and screenwriters famous and unsung who came before them. So when the news broke last week about TCM’s staff being slashed from around 90 personnel to about 20 – part of the layoffs rolling through Warner Bros. Discovery‘s TV networks …

Where to support Black-owned restaurants in L.A. for Juneteenth

Where to support Black-owned restaurants in L.A. for Juneteenth

Published by Sam Flores

My mother reminded me recently of a family trip we took to Allensworth, Calif., the state’s only Black-founded town (less than a two-hour drive from Los Angeles), for its annual Juneteenth festival. “The whole family went!” she insisted, trying to spark a memory. “We rented a van, we had matching T-shirts.” Finally, a hazy snapshot emerged: a vast golden field, my extended family spread out around picnic tables, laughing, talking, playing games and eating with other festivalgoers. Aside from the recognizably dry and flat lands of California’s Central Valley, the scene was interchangeable with family reunions, holidays and even summer trips to visit my great-grandmother in Jackson, Miss. (Dana Davenport, Marcel Rollock / For The Times) “Homecoming, church picnics, fish fries — they all share the same music, food and cadence as Juneteenth,” explained Nicole Taylor, author of “Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations,” the first Juneteenth cookbook released by a major publishing house. The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to …

15 things to do in Avila Beach on California’s Central Coast

15 things to do in Avila Beach on California’s Central Coast

Published by Sam Flores

Tucked away three miles off the 101 Freeway between Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo, about a 3½-hour drive from L.A., there’s a tiny little secret most travelers tend to miss: a quaint, walkable village and a wide beach with soft white sand, clear blue water, gentle waves and the most days of sun of all the beaches on the Central Coast. Because of Avila Beach’s location in the Port San Luis Harbor, with mountains surrounding the town, the fog lifts here earlier than at other beaches in the area. And when other beaches are fogged in, you can still catch rays at Avila Beach, where on average, 286 days a year are sunny. This has been common knowledge to some for years. When Sara Elena Loaiza, who now runs a vacation rental property in Avila Beach called Casa San Miguelito, was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, she and her husband took a trip up and down the 101 to find a location that would be cooler than their home in Pasadena and thus better …

Celebrate Pride Month at the best drag brunches in L.A.

Celebrate Pride Month at the best drag brunches in L.A.

Published by Sam Flores

Dating as far back as ancient Greek theater, drag is an undeniably legendary form of entertainment that’s touched nearly every corner of the world. Major U.S. cities have been host to drag performances for more than a century — beginning with underground ballrooms in the mid-19th century and evolving into everything from bingo to dance nights. More often than not these were evening events, frequented by the LGBTQ+ community and friends, and a rare opportunity for performers to have their talents seen and celebrated. Drag brunches flipped that model by bringing the art form to daytime audiences. In 2001, the now-nationwide Hamburger Mary’s franchise introduced the concept to Southern California. “A group of us drag queens would go to Hamburger Mary’s Long Beach on Sundays and hang out and have bottomless mimosas,” recalled Jewels Long Beach, executive director of entertainment at Hamburger Mary’s. “Because we were there all of the time, I was like, ‘We should start a drag show at brunch.’” Not long after, Hamburger Mary’s began hosting “SoCal’s only daytime drag show” — …