A rare recognition that the big orange has anything to envy, here's a d-lish article from the New York Times Magazine on how to get your California Carne Asada fix when not in California. "I get my [carne asada] at taco stands in Boyle Heights, where I like to sit midday, my boss on the East Coast none the wiser, downing my tacos with a side of radishes..." Seems writer Jennifer Steinhauer, who's new to LA from NYC, has an open mind. Lovely.
Check out this Ork poster of LA--111 neighborhoods within our borders. Love that LA neighborhoods are getting more attention nowadays. I once wrote a piece for Los Angeles magazine (a century ago) where there was actually a debate on whether LA even had an "Eastside" or a "Westside." Crazy talk!
This essay by Rachel Cline in the Sunday New York Times Magazine reveals more about the writer's rationalizations than it does about Los Angeles. These revelations are as follows...
1. That Cline feels Los Angeles is somehow responsible for her breakdown and subsequent rape--or was it rape and then breakdown? She writes that she can't remember because it's always sunny in LA and she was in her car listening to NPR.
2. These events were poetic justice for working on Knots Landing while making "a pile of money" and meeting Halle Berry.
3. Terrible things such as the above stop happening to you when you move from Los Angeles to New York.
4. The writer has read Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion.
5. Certain cliche's never go out of style. (Or out of print.)
The Michelin Guide Los Angeles 200--the first ever for the Big Orange--is out, and coveted Michelin stars have been handed out. Celebrity Adjacent thinks the list is a bit recherche (pardon our French), and don't get too excited, we have no three star restaurants. Three LA restos were awarded two Michelin stars: Mélisse, Spago and Urasawa in Beverly Hills.
One surprise: the inclusion of Saddlepeak Lodge in our hometown of Calabasas, California. Celebrity Adjacent once saw Van Halen leaving the Lodge. (This was the David Lee Roth years, or else why would we care?) CA was sixteen-years-old, screaming by in a Volkswagon Cabriolet while wearing a bikini. CA stood up, flashed them the peace sign and they cheered. Dancin' got us higher than anything we knew...
Celebrity Adjacent Strike Watch Continues!
Los Angeles is so lame. Everyone's stupid, you just stay in your car, there's no culture, we have nothing but the ability to walk in an oval: Slate article.
And then there's this: The Office Promotion.
Celebrity Adjacent was surprised by copious West Coast shout-outs in November's Vogue.
In addition to stories on Ron Herman soundtracks and vintage by appointment only at Not to Be Reproduced, in "The New Staples," the mag picked seven must haves that, the editors say, won't go out of style. Four are LA designers. (Perhaps this was a mistake? Celebrity Adjacent has known many editors who prefer to keep their editorial New York-focused.) The left coast chosen ones are...
Haverhill bikinis
Cool bikinis = delicious.
James Perse T-shirts.
Check out the new flagship store in Beverly Hills, if you ever actually go to Beverly Hills for anything but doctor's appointments.
FreeCity sweats
Of Ron Herman's VP of menswear Nina Garduno, Vogue says, "Her mind is that of an artist, which elevates this line of L.A. casual lifestyle clothing to something with global relevance." Changing the world, one sweat pant at a time? (Confession: Celebrity Adjacent doesn't approve of the Juicy Couture/Sweatpants/Things written on our asses trend...)
Mike&Chris leather hoodie
"...Mike Gonzalez and Christine Park-Gonzalez first crossed paths in
the slackery-glamerous Los Feliz Village of Los Angeles..."
Slackery-glamerous--we love it!
Get High on Your Own Supply
New Yorkers who were jealous of our ability to buy delicious Atwater Pottery (by former X-Large co-creator
Adam Silverman) at design mainstay OK can now get their own. Atwater Pottery now available at:
MATTER
405 BROOME STREET NEW YORK, NY 10013
(Between Centre and Lafayette)
TEL 212 343 2600
PS Sorry about two ceramics entries. Celebrity Adjacent is not addicted to pottery--we can quit anytime.
We love some of the new lexicon that's being generated by the writer's strike. Here are a few favorites being tossed around the Big Orange...
"Strike Captain": A picket team supervisor. Usage, as coined by one screen-writing friend, "Is it inappropriate to be attracted to your strike captain?"
"Pencils Down": Clearly our beloved writers were lucid during their SATs. "Pencils down," the phrase used by teachers telling students was up on tests, is the latest buzz phrase, re-tooled as a two word directive that writers stop working for studios and networks once the strike begins.
"Posh Strike": Coined by a strike captain, who reminded writers they are not allowed to bring hors d'oeuvres to picket lines. Usage: "This is not a posh strike." Time to cancel that order with Joan's on Third.
We support the strike and hope the writers will prevail. However, we also hope that the writers will continue to bring the funny. Fingers crossed for good signage.
Celebrity Adjacent Firewatch '07 Continues!
How much do we heart this Variety article on smoked out V.I.P.' s? The rich and famous are not exempt from mandatory evacuation from their Malibu homes, so they did the only reasonable thing one could do: Checked into the Viceroy, Four Seasons, Peninsula, and Shutters, natch!
All four hotels are fully booked, but you seriously need niceties when your home is about to be burned to the ground. Massage anyone? Celebrity Adjacent says absolutely.
P.S. Didya hear that David Geffen invited the firefighters into his newly renovated Malibu Beach Inn for free? David, as ee cummings said, "i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)".
R.I.P. Castle Kashan
We remember approaching winding Malibu Canyon, heading reluctantly back from a day at the beach to the mean streets of Calabasas. We would pass Castle Kashan--a glorious palace, built in age old 1974, fit for a princess, and unforgivably tacky even to our four year old eyes. That doesn't mean we didn't love it, and it doesn't mean we're not going to miss it. The Castle--with it's Elvis Room, horn blowers, topiaries, and single glass slipper placed meaningfully on the main, red-carpeted staircase--has burned down in the Malibu fires.
However, what could be better than the soon-to-be-immortal words of Madame Kashan, as she left her palace smoldering with nothing but a few shopping bags?
"My possessions don't possess me. My house does not possess me," she told fire fighters before bidding adieu. "I'm thinking about our boys in Iraq. I'm thinking about you, boys."
