Song stuck in my head

Todays song stuck in my head is "Do You Love Me Now?" by The Breeders.

holla if you can hear me

You can reach me via email at fadeinmail@gmail.com

Bus Blog -1

Times and schedules are taken from the metro website

The 10
The 7:36 a.m. did not show up until 7:52 a.m. and is filled to the brink with students going to Fairfax High. Anytime I ride this bus in the morning, and now not all that often, I usually end up standing. This has made me rethink footwear. Today I can make my way back a few feet of the door, but there was a time when I quite embarrassingly had my ass pressed against the front wind shield and held on for dear life to the ticket machine. In Los Angeles they really pack people onto the bus, I wonder how the clausterphobes make it. in Minneapolis the drivers has a yellow line rule, they didn't care how you did it, but the bus DID NOT move if there were passengers infront of the yellow line. In Los Angeles, they would have you ride piggy back if you could with a person or two sitting on the drivers lap.

More buses perhaps?

The 212
The lateness of the 10 has made me miss my usually 212, but it is so late that I don't have to wait for the 212 too long.

The hardest thing about standing and waiting for the southbound 212 on Melrose and La Brea is waiting outside of Pink's Famous Hot Dogs I still haven't gone but, the smell of Pink's breakfast at 8:00 a.m. is a hard temptation to deny yourself. I usually do not get up early enough for breakfast so this almost kills me in the morning. It is also the only time you will not have to brave the insane lines. The picture in this post is of January 20, 2007.

Someone on the 212 is wearing too much cologne and people have gotten up and moved to the back and opened windows.

The 333
I think I can count the number of times that I have sat on this bus on my right hand. My advice a 733 from downtown to Santa Monica during rush hour. Minneapolis has rush hour only buses, it is not unheard of.

All the songs I heard from my ipod:
Climbing up the Walls- Radiohead
Tango Cancion-Gotan Project
Shake Your Rump-Beastie Boys
I am Afraid of Americans- David Bowie
Pop Quiz- Stereolab
Time Out of the World- Goldfrapp
Carrion- Fiona Apple
Let's Go to Bed- The Cure
Ponta de Lanca- Jorge Ben
Die Gedanken Sind Frei- Brazilian Girls
I Might Be Wrong- Radiohead
Unision- Bjork
El Amour de Este Pueblo- Federico Aubele
White Shadows- Cold Play

Bus Blog- May Take Awhile

Once after jumping on a bus at Melrose and La Brea, the driver came over the microphone and announced:

"For those of you who are going to call into the Metro hotline today because the 7:48 bus never showed up, I will save you a phone call by letting you know that the bus broke down. After all you are riding the MTA and it is all about the way you look at it MTA... Metro Transit Authority..... MTA .... May Take Awhile. There you go and have a great day."

I wasn't late for my destination, but I have been because of L.A. public transit, most notably for my second day of work.


The best way to comment on the Public Transit system is to ride it and let you know what happens. Over the course of Fade In I will publish some bus blogs to let you know my trials and tribulations or lack thereof.

Peaches Handmaiden

I am really digging The Reminder by Feist right now. I know that the album came out in the beginning of May, but I just bought it and I really am impressed.

Getting Around

Is traffic as bad in Los Angeles as everyone complains and jokes about? Yes.

Is it as bad as that scene in Fellini's 8 1/2 where Marchello Mastroianni's character is stuck on his way out to his film shoot in the country. Sometimes.

Los Angeles is a town of full of people who have cars.

Los Angeles is a town that you measure in minutes. I'll give you a couple of examples.

• From the Cat and the Fiddle Bar in Hollywood to Santa Monica Pier is 14 miles or 30 to 40 minutes.
• From Hollywood and Highland Shopping Center to The Grove on 3rd and Fairfax is about 3.5 miles it takes at least 20 minutes.
• I live 7 miles from work, it takes me 25 to 40. It is not because I am taking the less than stellar public transportation system. (The next post, will be my inauguration of Bus Blog)

It is just takes that long because there are just so many cars on the road all day every day. Traffic never takes a day off.

It can really be frustrating because really there is no way around the relentless traffic in this town. Not on the weekends, not at 8:00 p.m. not Tuesday at 10:35 a.m. Never.

Anyone have a traffic story to share? Email me: fadeinmail@yahoo.com

The waiter has his chance

The first Blog I Heart is Waiter Rant.

I have been reading this blog since it was on blogspot, and since then author, who is never named, has become internet famous, has his own website, store and now a book deal.

It sounds intimidating doesn't it?

Don't be frightened. It is probably one of the best written blogs in the blogosphere and no one needs to know that you read it but you and I.

Waiter Rant is a blog about a waiter who rants about his customers, his co-workers, the class systems housed inside "the bistro" (His restaurant that he also never names) about his time as a seminary student, (If you are worried about him being preachy, don't worry it is quite the opposite) his time working in a half-way house, breakups, misunderstandings, mortality, etc.

I give you permission to stop reading this blog for a week or so to catch up.

Another reason why I love this blog is that when I was a struggling college student at the University of Iowa I took one of the only jobs available in this over populated college town. I took a job opening a restaurant as a line cook. Yes a girl line cook. A "Grill Bitch." After all these years, I still don't flinch picking up hot plates and when a waiter tells me..

"Be careful, the plate is hot"

I usually reply...

"I used to be a line cook, I no longer have feeling in my fingertips"

I have been on all sides of the restaurant business, although I have never owned one of my own. (I would be really bad at it, I let people walk all over me.) Reading this blog reminds me of the crazy, stressful, incestuous fun working at a restaurant was, but also so very thankful that I am no longer doing that work anymore.

This is why I am also loving Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential right now.

Happy reading!

Blogs I heart R.I. P. Edition

Before I start with the Blogs That I Heart, I would like to pay respects to two blogs that I loved and shaped me as a blogger.

The first was Hookers on Stilts, a great, cathartic, crass, sometimes too informing, entertaining, love/hate affair with Minneapolis by a former classmate of mine. She has since moved to New York and her blog has been claimed by Spammers. The top post is a advertisement for Valtrex, which might be fitting.

The second was Treat Williams Blog, which was a man's hip hop journey through college in California. He had the tightest play lists and I looked to him to show me new music everyday. He did switch to a new blog called A Three Minute Record, since claimed as well by spammers.

They were both really great and if you know where they ended up please email me at Fadeinmailatgmaildotcom

What to do on Saturday Night

Every summer in LA a group called Cinespia organizes and holds screenings at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Santa Monica every Saturday. The cemetery is the final resting place for Charlie Chaplin and Hollywood royal, Douglas Fairbanks among others and makes a great back drop for movies.

You can see the calendar of the screenings on Cinespia's website. This weekend they will be showing Rebel Without a Cause , which I have not seen before so you may see me there. Also, there is a special screening on Sunday night of The Holy Mountain a movie by Alejandro Jodorowsky and financed by John Lennon. A.J. also did El Topo, so if you want an idea of the film, I think it will be just as surreal and strange. This will be the first public showing of the movie, as it has been banned in this country for the last 30 years. (Don't fret, if you are interested you can see it on Netflix.)

D.J.s spin records before and after.

Hints for attending the screening:

• If there is a movie you really want to see, be sure to line up early. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and people get there much earlier. I was fortunate enough to attend Vertigo a couple weeks ago and I know that they had to turn people away.
• The $10 donation ticket isn't suggested, it is mandatory. But hey where can you see a movie in Los Angeles for $10 with 1,000 of your closest friends
• Pack a picnic lunch, bring a pizza, or grab some Astroburger food is allowed.
• Bring a bottle of wine. Alcohol is also allowed, but as always drink in moderation. The lines for the bathroom are ridiculously long.
• Bring a blanket, believe it or not, it does get really cold.
• Bring camping chairs, everyone else does and it is hard to crane your neck to see the move if everyone else has chairs and not you.

Old Feature- New blog

I have an affliction. I have a virtual D.J. inside my head that plays song on repetition for days. Unfortunately a lot of these songs are really catchy and really bad. Sometimes I am lucky and it is actually something I already have in my collection.

I blog about songs in my head because I feel like once they are out there and known, it dissipates them and gives them less of a stronghold in my head.

You might think I am crazy. Oh well.

I am not currently lucky with the song choice.

Today I am suffering from a little "Joy Ride" by Roxette.

Why, do you ask? Sometimes there isn't a reason why. Something will just trigger it or it is that last song I have heard before I go to bed or I'll hear it somewhere or just no reason at all.

Last night I am waiting for a friend to get off of work at this nice steakhouse so we can hit a party in the Hollywood Hills. I mean this place is nice, white tablecloths, the waiters are wearing waitercoats, the lighting is dark, candles at all the tables. This place is old school and romantic, you wouldn't think that about the music though. It really is quite the opposite.

Imagine yourself out for a romantic dinner with your lady/man. You are celebrating an anniversary, a birthday, valentines day. Your waiter has just dropped off your glasses of wine and taken your order, you have a few minutes of uninterrupted time to chat. You clink glasses. You look into each others eyes, happy to just be together. You or your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband opens your/their mouth to say ...

"Honey, I am so happy that we have the chance to spend a nice romantic dinner with you, I am excited that we have decided to do this and put my writing, dealing with lawyers, school... (fill in the LA blank here) and spend a nice night together"

Before you or your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband can respond......

"WHAT THEY DO! THEY SMILE IN YOUR FACE! SMILING FACES,.... I DON'T NEED NO LOW DOWN DIRTY BASTARDS! (BACK STABBERS)"

This can definitely ruin that mood and this place is constantly playing mood ruining songs.

This song is a great song to play when you are stuck in traffic on your way home from the job you don't really like, but for a romantic dinner for two. Uh, uh.

Needless to say, Joy Ride was one of the songs I heard and made me wonder if this is the song I would want to hear if I was out with my man, spending a little alone time.

excerpts taken from the lyrics of The Backstabbers- by the O'Jays

What a difference the sun makes

One of the reasons I also moved, no, it was not because I followed Paul Magers , is the weather. Which is obvious to everyone who knows anything about Minnesota. (Although there is someone I talk to quite frequently in passing who thinks it is down south. He always asks me if there are good soul food places here and I want to tell him it would be more like if there are any good Lutefisk places I have tried correcting him, telling him how much it snows and that it is in fact up north, but he keeps coming back to it being in the south. Oh well)

What I do tell people that shocks them a bit it the great expanses of time Minnesotans do not see the sun. Right before I moved here there was period of time in December of 2005 that we did not see the sun for two weeks. I am not lying or exaggerating, look it up if you want. People here complain about
June Gloom , but really it is nothing compared to a Minnesota gray period. If you see in the wikipedia description of June Gloom, the clouds burn off in the afternoon, that doesn't happen where I am from. Gray all day everyday for weeks, with possible chance of severe thunderstorm/snowstorm with intense humidity or dryness, depending on the season.

When I first moved here people would laugh at me because I would wake up and want to run outside and go to the beach, because I thought that the sun would go away. Heavy conditioning.

I guess now I have gotten used to the constant sun. Hey I am sitting here writing this instead of being outside for the last hour and a half of sunshine.

Meeting people

(Or under its original title Fifty Nifty United States)

If you have recently moved to Los Angeles, like myself, I would like to give you some ice breaker advice. The one question that will ultimately start a conversation here is:

Where are you from?
The truth is that the vast majority of people in Los Angeles are not from Los Angeles. For example take a concentrated population like the people I work with. (The only time I will mention work in my blog) 6 people out of 21 are actually from Los Angeles and one of those lived in Colombia for the majority of her life. The others are:

Idaho, Nebraska, Orange County (people assure me that this is very different from Los Angeles), South Africa, Wisconsin, Minnesota(someone other than myself), Hawaii, Michigan, Viet Nam, Brooklyn and Ohio.

The fact is that I have met very few people who are native to this huge city.

So if you are at a party or a bar and you find your self alone, forced to mingle just ask:

"Where are you from?"

Because that will lead you to a whole host of other questions that will occupy you for at least 10 minutes. Like:

Why did you move to L.A.?
How long have you been here?
I am new here where are some decent places to hang out? or go have sushi?

Another thing that shocked me about asking this one questions is that here people actually elaborate. (Shocker)

If I asked this question in Minnesota:
Oh, where are you from? Eden Prairie
Originally? yes
What do you do? I work at General Mills.

This usually ends our conversation because a) what I am supposed to do with one word answers and b) No one from Minnesota will actually ask you those same questions back.

If I ask this question here, I goes a lot different.

Where are you from? I am from Kentucky.
How long have you been here? Well I came out here in 98 for college and never really left.
What are you doing out here? Right now I am trying to get into the acting game but I also nanny for this rich family in Bel Air. They let me go out on auditions whenever I want and it is really great.

Then you can ask them, if you have seen them in anything.....

Are you new you L.A.? Where are you from and what are you doing here? Do you know of any good sushi places?

Email me Fade In Mail

Featured LA Blog- LAist

www.laist.com

I happened upon LAist after reading the already mentioned LAobserved.com.

Ists are blogs nationwide and worldwide if you aren’t in the Los Angeles area and are reading Fade In check out the other Ists in Austin, Boston, Houston, London , New York, San Francisco, Chicago , Philly , Toronto, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, D.C. , etc. (I have linked a few, but if you want to see the others scroll across the top)

I love LAist because it is a little bit of everything blog.

Not sure what to do this weekend? Check LAist.
Didn't get all the local news, because they were covering the Paris Hilton jail saga? Check LAist
Not sure which bands are in town this weekend? Check LAist
I would like to go to Griddles, but is the line really worth it? Check LAist.

I think you get it, but when in doubt. Check LAist.

Oooops

She's back in, I guess. The media isn't really covering it here.

just act surpirsed

Lets all collectively feign surprise that Paris "Jail Bird" Hilton got off much much earlier than we all thought.

She makes me ashamed to be an American.

I wouldn't post about her usually, but when in L.A.......

Los Angeles I am Yours

When I left a couple of music saavy people made me a California mix that I would like to share with you.

1) California-Low (A band from Duluth, MN)
2) Los Angeles, I'm yours- The Decemberists (Will be at the Hollywood Bowl on July 7th with the LA Philharmonic. I strongly recommend being there)
3) California (Part I)- Mason Jennings (An artist from the Twin Cities- will be playing a bunch of California shows. I think I missed Los Angeles, but all of my money this summer is going toward wedding related ventures, no, not my own)
4)California Stars- Billy Bragg and Wilco
5) Goodbye California- Jolie Holland
6) La Cienega Just Smiled- Ryan Adams
7) In California -Neko Case (If you if you happen to be moving from California to Minneapolis check out her song Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis)
8) California- Rufus Wainright
9) My California Love- Ryan Adams
10) Why You'd Want to Live Here- Death Cab for Cutie

In addition I would add (Although you might find my additions typical)
California Dreamin- The Mamas and the Papas ( Because Wong Kar Wai is my favorite director)
Going to California- Led Zepplin
Los Angeles- Frank Black ( Eventhough it is not about Los Angeles California, but the one in south Patagonia)
Let's Go Crazy- Prince (Because of that "shrink in Beverly Hills, you know Dr. Everythingwillbealright")

Do you have anything to add? Email me: fadeinmail@gmail.com

Finding an apartment

If you read my post about finding a job, the same applies to apartments. Adopt a guerrilla like attitude to getting in touch with landlords.

Also, Westside Rentals is a complete waste of money. The Landlords post the same apartments on CraigsList .