Gardening — for Victory!
This nice sunny Saturday was a perfect opportunity for us to plant the seeds for the very first vegetable garden in our backyard. We had actually been planning our victory garden for a while now. Christopher prepared the plot for planting last fall, and heavy rains over the winter caused the ground to get nice and soft. We have a good variety of crops including carrots, onions, bell and hot peppers, and green beans (marked by hand-drawn stones pictured below). I have no idea if the Arizona soil is good for vegetables, but we’re planning to water it diligently and hope for the best.
Wheels on Fire, Burning Down the Road
Welcome to our latest acquisition (Price Is Right voice) — a new car! This 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix was among the fleet of company cars for the place where Christopher works. When they came up for sale, we thought long and hard and decided to go for it. I loved my trusty old ‘97 Geo Metro (a hand-me-down from Christopher), but it was getting to the point where it was rattling, the AC didn’t work right, etc. So it was with a heavy heart that we donated the old vehicle to a local charity for the blind. This Pontiac is nice and sturdy, bigger than what I’m usually used to but very nimble and smooth on the road. Design-wise, I had this impression that Pontiacs were the cars made for dudes who think a framed Nagel print was the height of cool. This particular model is not too bad looking, however. Stylish, even.
Those Are People Who Died, Died
I was in the middle of reading about the fascinating people profiled in the annual Lives They Lived issue of the New York Times Magazine when I heard shocking news about the passing of another fascinating person. One that I knew, actually: Brad Graham of Bradlands.com. It appears that he died in his sleep of natural causes on December 31st, at the young age of 41. Yeah, I don’t believe it, either.
Brad was one of the earliest bloggers I knew of, and pretty much the kingpin of the (small) community of gay bloggers around in the early ’00s. Back then it was such a thrill to be writing on the net, and having someone else noticing what you were doing was an even bigger thrill — especially when that someone was as friendly and witty as Brad. His August 3, 2001 post, using the first Scrubbles redesign to explore childhood fear of Dow Scrubbing Bubbles, was typical Brad. We weren’t close friends or anything, but his warmth and humor was something I treasured over the years (we even briefly bonded over the ’70s kiddie-com Big John, Little John on twitter last year). I’ll miss you, Brad.
Fine Feathered Friends
I’m pleased as punch with the illustration for our holiday card for this year. Best wishes for the season, everyone.
From Beautiful Burbank
Christopher writes on our adventures attending a taping of The Big Bang Theory last night.
One thing he didn’t mention: after the taping, we were allowed to walk through the empty nighttime Warner Bros. studio lot by ourselves. Since we walked to the studio and the normal audience exit was at a parking structure on the opposite side of the lot from our hotel, they allowed us to take a shortcut (as long as we didn’t “dilly dally,” according to the studio page who helped us). The Warner lot has such a history, and being amongst the cavernous buildings where Bette Davis and Humprey Bogart once walked was such a thrill.
Scarf It Up
Earlier this year, I made a deal with crafty Kris of web-goddess fame: in exchange for designing a spiffy new weblog banner for her, she got to use her superfly knitting skillz to make me a striped multicolored scarf. The banner was finished last Spring, but it’s only tonight that the scarf has arrived from Kris’ homestead in Australia. Neat! I always wanted a scarf, and this one’s a beauty. Here’s a picture of me rockin’ it with my usual nighttime t-shirt and pajama bottom ensemble:
Mama Cat v.2
Good news — a revised and updated version of our 2003 children’s book, Mama Cat, is now available at lulu.com. This was the book that Christopher wrote and I illustrated based on our beloved cat Eames. For this new edition, I went back and re-scanned all of the original artwork, touched them up, and saved them as high quality 1200 dpi bitmap files. The new art is a huge improvement over the old. Although the paper quality in this Lulu edition is slightly thinner and less textured, the higher quality printing makes the text and graphics really pop and look sharp. We’ve had a lot of compliments on this book from cat lovers and those who have undergone the loss of a pet; they are very appreciative of something that addresses their unique situation in an intimate and caring way.
By the way, the original self-published edition is still for sale at Amazon.com.
Witches’ Night Out
It’s Halloween! What spookiness will be planned? We’re having our yearly ritual of turning off the porch light, avoiding the neighborhood kiddies, shutting ourselves into a back room, and watching a scary movie. Because needy little sugar-addicted brats are the scariest things on earth! Here’s the only Halloween decor we have at the homestead:
Despite the avoidance of trick or treaters, I want to state that I am far from the Halloween version of a Scrooge. Earlier this week, I uploaded some scans of these terrific vintage “You’ll Die Laughing” cards that my friend Julie sent me a few years back. These wonderfully dark cards were illustrated by Mad man Jack Davis. Check out the four that I have in my Kiddie Korner flickr set.
Finally, I’ve also posted a Halloween-themed edition of my online comic, Two Bunnies and a Duck. I’ve been plugging away at the biweekly Two Bunnies for almost two years. While the project serves as a good way to keep my drawing and Photoshop skills honed, the thing barely gets any visitors or comments and it’s very discouraging. Please visit and, if you want to cheer me up, leave a comment. Thanks. Boo!
Wednesday: On the Beach
And now… the conclusion of our Los Angeles trip:
- Wednesday — This was our “beach day,” a nice way to wind down our vacation. I’d never been to Venice Beach before, and previously I’d only known the spot for its image as a hangout for surfers, bodybuilders, tattoo artists and other stereotypical Californians. That morning, we walked around the boardwalk and observed everyone getting ready for the day. It had a funky and kind of mellow vibe. One of the first photos I snapped was a shop window selling a custom-blown glass bong in the shape of Bart Simpson. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Much of this area looked vaguely familiar from being filmed for various movies and TV shows. I even recognized one building as a locale from the Linda Blair Roller Boogie movie. We searched around for a spot to eat breakfast, but the only shops available were snack joints that hadn’t yet opened for the day. Long story short, we ended up back at the hotel and having the attendant get our car (one of the annoying aspects of the Hotel Erwin) so we could take the short drive to the recommended restaurant. Unfortunately, the first place we tried was lousy. We had to wait 15 minutes before being waited on. Then the waiter informed us the muffin I ordered from the menu hasn’t been available for months. A few minutes later, they told us that they ran out of the croissant I also ordered. All we wanted was a simple, quick meal! We got fed up and bolted for another place across the street (which was better). About the only good thing to come from this time-consuming jag was the opportunity to see Jonathon Borofsky’s notorious ‘Ballerina Clown’ sculpture. Back to the hotel, we finally got our time to relax on the beach. It was nice, with flocks of seagulls, sandpipers and plovers to keep us company. I got in the water up to my knees and Christopher swam out to a rocky outcropping. It was a balmy morning and the beach hadn’t filled up yet — perfect! We walked around the boardwalk some more, eventually buying a stack of t-shirts from one of the overstuffed souvenir shops lining the way. We got back to the hotel, packed our bags, and shipped off for home on the venerable 10 highway. Of course, it wouldn’t be L.A. without at least one traffic jam, and we hit a doozy on the way out. Before passing over the Colorado River into our home state, we did one last “California” thing — lunch at the Thousand Palms In-N-Out Burger location! So ended Matt & Christopher’s California Adventure.
Tuesday: Studio Visits, Twice
More L.A. shenanigans (including stuff from the previous day):
- Tuesday — This was our full day at beautiful Burbank, home of the movie and television industries! Our time there actually began late in the previous afternoon. Driving in, our first stop was a bucolic ’50s-era residential neighborhood next to the Disney and Warner Brothers studios. Christopher found out the address of Mabel Monahan, the victim of famed murderess Barbara Graham played by Susan Hayward in I Want To Live! We located Monahan’s home in this peaceful neighborhood and I took pictures of C. standing in front of it (I drew the line at knocking on the door, however). Damage done, we checked in at the Burbank Best Western and ate at the Bob’s Big Boy a stone’s throw away. This is the famous Bob’s with the huge, nicely preserved googie sign out front. As it turned out, the homey and uncomplicated cuisine of Bob’s was a perfect capper to an action-filled day. The next morning, we set out for the Warner Bros. studio (also walking distance from the hotel). Originally we wanted to tour the Disney studios, but apparently Disney is very stingy about tours and one has to know an employee to get in. Hmph. Instead, we opted for a deluxe five-hour tour of Warner Bros. This tour is more intimate and involved than the basic tour we took ten years ago, allowing people inside the sound stage themselves and a meal in the commissary. It sounded like just our thing. Arriving, we found out that the tour entrance was moved from the older part of the lot into a neighboring building’s lobby. The ticket desk was inside a fancy area with a giant mall-esque gift shop and a Starbucks, which didn’t bode well in my opinion. Luckily, once the tour was under way our qualms vanished. Our tour guide was a knowledgeable industry veteran, a friendly chap who took requests from our small group of 12 on what to do. Our tram went through the studio producers’ offices (designed to look like various office buildings for shoots), a jungle with an incongruous fake snowy lake plopped in the middle, and a street filled with more offices made to look like typical suburban housing. We went through the oft-filmed area with a public park and gazebo, which was dressed for the TV series Eastwick. The tram also went through the New York City street, familiar from so many old Cagney/Bogart movies. Somebody requested going to the costume shop — this place was a wonder. Literally a giant warehouse filled with racks of clothing, arranged by style and period. I saw a section of African-inspired garments, followed by an aisle full of 1960s dresses. Next was a sound recording room, followed by lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our meal was served in the executive dining room. I ordered spaghetti carbonara and peered discreetly around the room for celebrities (none were found, although our guide pointed out the head of Warner Bros. TV production at one table). This was the best meal of the trip. It even included yummy lemon cake for dessert. More going around in the tram amongst the huge studio buildings. We’re huge Big Bang Theory fans and delighted in spotting some dress extras walking around for a taping that day. We even saw B.B.T. star Johnny Galecki, smoking a cigarette under a tree located opposite the building where his show was rehearsing. Our guide took us to see the Two and a Half Men set from the audience seats. After that, we got to walk around amongst the sets for Chuck and The Mentalist. These were cool to look at up close, since they kind of looked real but also had incongruous elements (like the lighting) that made them fake. Ah, Tinseltown. We saw a garage with some famous cars, visited a museum with displays of famous W.B. movie costumes (Bette Davis’ jewel-encrusted gown from Dark Victory was the best), then walked around the preserved Central Perk set from Friends and got our pictures taken on the couch. Very touristy, but very fun. The entire tour was so memorable and much less hurried than the normal tour. After it wrapped up, we needed to hurry and check out of the hotel, then race across town to the MGM-Sony studios for a sitcom taping that night. We made it — barely in time — for the taping of an episode of the David Spade/Patrick Warburton show The Rules of Engagement (we had been trying for Big Bang Theory tickets, but the show was sold out). This was such an interesting experience, one that I’d always wanted to try. The crowd was a bit young and white trashy, and the studio grounds seemed not as well-maintained as Warners. We got ushered in forming a single file line, with Christopher worming his way to the front so he could talk with the studio page organizing things. That turned out to be a bad idea, actually, since we ended up sitting tucked away on the very edge of the seating. The stage was arranged with all of the sets needed lined up in a row, with some even tucked away around the corner. A warm-up comedian was there to keep the audience excited, which was needed since this taping went on for almost four hours! Most scenes required two or three takes, with a small army of writers on hand to tweak lines for the maximum laughs. The show itself was okay and sporadically funny; mostly what got my interest was watching all of these people doing makeup and hair, watching playbacks on the monitors, getting sets prepped for filming. This particular episode had two scenes set in restaurants, and it was so fascinating to see the extras pantomiming their conversations, acting animated even when the cameras weren’t running on them. As the taping started getting tedious, the people running the show brought out food — first pizza, then candy. In the end, I was applauding simply for the effort all these people put into this show. Leaving the studio, we drove to nearby Venice Beach for our last hotel stay, getting somewhat lost in the process. The Hotel Erwin was hard to navigate into once found, but the room was nicely done in a trendy, funky style. I sleepily took a few photos before crashing into bed for the night.
Monday: Downtown Trudgery
Our Los Angeles trip report continues.
- Monday — We set aside an entire today to do an architectural walking tour of downtown. Lots of research online and through Charles Moore’s wonderful book Los Angeles: The City Observed taught me that there’s an overabundance of great buildings around here, from the public library to Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall. We wanted to see it all, and so we got an early start. Our first stop was the furthest away — the Eastern Columbia Building, tucked away several blocks to the south. I was a bit leery about walking that far on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, but it was totally worth it. This building is a total Art Deco vision in shades of periwinkle and teal. I would have loved to have seen the giant clock all lit up at night. We walked down Broadway towards breakfast, checking out the mixture of fellow walkers along the way. This area used to be a swanky destination; now it’s a mixture of the homeless, Hispanic shops and upscale condos. There’s also a lot of old theaters in various states of disrepair. We arrived at our next site, and breakfast at the famed Clifton’s Cafeteria. This eatery used to be a chain; the Broadway location is the last remaining one. I took a ton of pictures in this kitschy delight, starting with the delightful terrazzo tilework in front. The woodsy-themed dining room was a bit worn down, but totally charming. We got our trays, filled with run of the mill but tasty food, and settled down upstairs (I wonder if they have a lot of stair-related accidents there?). After finishing, we noticed a third floor, closed off to diners. Being the braver one of the two, Christopher decided to venture up there despite the floor being completely dark. We found a great little museum of Clifton’s memorabilia. An employee found us looking around. Instead of getting angry and kicking us out, he offered to turn the lights on for us! At least it gave us an opportunity to see things better. Bellies filled, we continued walking Northward towards the Little Tokyo district. There were a few independent bookstores I wanted to check out, but it was still early and they were closed. In Little Tokyo, there was a Japanese bookstore called Kunokuniya that looked intriguing. Luckily once we got there they were open for business. What a place! Shelves of manga, books on every kind of Japanese subject imaginable, and tons of beyond cute stationery, craft supplies and (my favorite) toys. We spent 80 bucks there. From here we walked towards City Hall and took more photos. This was the tallest building in L.A. when it was erected in 1928, and even today it impresses. Strangely, it never occurred to us that you could tour the building until a gentleman seeing us staring brought it up with Christopher. We got our passes and took a succession of elevators all the way to the top, where open balconies allow you to see the city vistas from all four sides. It was wonderful, and we had that whole top floor to ourselves! The building contains a lot of neat Deco-era details everywhere, making it the highlight of the day. Out of City Hall, we were getting ready to head back to the hotel when we suddenly remembered two other L.A. landmarks that still needed seeing — the Bradbury Building and Angels Flight. The Bradbury isn’t much to look at from the outside, but the interior central court is justifiably famous for its beauty. I’ve dug this building ever since seeing it in Blade Runner, and experiencing it for real was a genuine pleasure (as seen in the photo above). Angels Flight came next. Unfortunately, this famous hillside trolley is closed indefinitely — but that didn’t stop us from snapping a few pics of the bright red boxcar. By this time, it was mid-afternoon and our feet were getting tired. We went back to the hotel for a rest and change of clothes. Not for long however, since our next stop was Disney Concert Hall. This place was gorgeous, especially with a second floor garden winding around the back. I loved how the interior was such a complete design, right down to the custom font used on the lobby’s donor wall. We took the hour long audio tour, which was apparently popular since there were lots of other tourists wandering around the place carrying those unique audio wands that day. I took several shots of Gehry’s famous undulating walls on that perfectly sunny afternoon. Our final stop that day was the Los Angeles Public Library, thankfully located close to the Westin. This is another gorgeous Art Deco structure, although by this time we were too tired to fully appreciate it. The library happened to be hosting a show of drawings and sketches by the architect Richard Neutra, so we spent a good 45 minutes or so looking at that. Anyone in the area should check that out. Feet and backs aching, we trudged back to our hotel — tired but happy that we had such an eventful day.
Sunday: Hollywood!
Can you believe how long this day was? More of Matt & Christopher’s fabulous Los Angeles trip report:
- Sunday — Our Hollywood day! I was looking forward to the idea of taking the Metro from downtown to Hollywood, but we had a few stops that required driving our car. Before heading out, we had a serviceable breakfast in the Bonaventure’s food court. Over bacon and eggs, I snapped a bunch of photos of those glass towers and tile floors. I liked the Bonaventure signage, too – Helvetica in lozenge shapes, color coded by area. Very 1979. Obviously, I must have looked somewhat bonkers to other guests when snapping shots of the restroom sign off the food court. Whatever. The nice, uncongested drive out to Hollywood turned a bit harried when we couldn’t figure out the area parking meters. A call to the hotel concierge helpfully smoothed things out, however, and we were off walking down Hollywood boulevard in no time. I wanted to take photos of Joyce Compton’s star in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, so we made that our first destination. Even though it was only about 10 a.m., the hurlyburly of tourists and vendors was already under way. Much of the boulevard is as trashy as ever, but there are also a lot of cool Deco-era buildings everywhere. I took pics of those, and the Egyptian and Graumans Chinese theaters, noticing the ever present people dressed up as superheroes in front of the latter (notice Spiderman in the photo above). The street also had some kind of slick new mall-type development that was swarming with tourists, which I couldn’t understand — who travels across the country to shop at a mall? Now, shopping at a cool movie-centric bookstore like Larry Edmunds I can understand. That was our next stop, but unfortunately we got there too early and the place hadn’t yet opened (their website had the wrong hours posted). So we headed back in the car and drove around the tiny yet upscale neighborhoods in the Hollywood Hills. Lots of neat little Spanish-style homes settled on twisty little roads reside here. Getting near the top of one drive, I was surprised to find John Lautner’s Garcia House — an amazing ’60s home that was memorably demolished in one of the Lethal Weapon movies. I actually snuck up on the driveway and took a picture of the home’s breathtaking view. We also saw High Tower Drive, one of those quintessential L.A. spots featured in the movies The Long Goodbye and Dead Again. I so want to live in that Streamline Moderne beauty on the right side. We drove to the Hollywood Bowl, took pics of the awesome sculptures out front, then parked and waited for the Hollywood Heritage Museum to open. This gem is a restored barn that was originally used as Cecil B. DeMille’s offices in his earliest years of filmmaking. The museum is a small affair with lots of fascinating mementos relating to DeMille, Paramount Pictures, Rudolph Valentino, and assorted restaurants and nightclubs that no longer exist. Christopher and I spent about 90 minutes there, a good chunk of which was spent talking to the volunteer manning the place — a guy who works for a local prop house designing period-specific paper ephemera for film and TV productions (man, I would love to have his job). The fact that this place was empty at the same time the boulevard was swarming with mall-craving mouth breathers says a lot. If you’re considering a trip to Hollywood, go to this museum. Ahem. We drove back to central Hollywood and spent about an hour exploring the funky Larry Edmunds bookstore, buying a small stack of books and film stills. Time was approaching for a late lunch. Originally we planned to dine at the legendary (and old) Musso & Frank Grill, but being closed Sundays forced us to pick something else. I spied a cute little hot dog joint nearby, so we went there instead. Skooby’s was an excellent choice, a place whose menu included fresh-cut fries and Mexican Coke in bottles. We ordered to go and had a relaxing meal in nearby Selma Park, just off the street of the same name where we parked. At this point, I want to mention that Selma Avenue also adjoins Crossroads of the World, which is possibly the cutest place on earth. Meal finished, we got in the car and headed back downtown. Back at the hotel, we explored the rotating restaurant and bar on top of the building, gawking at the gorgeous cityscape at night. Then we bought some smoothies for dinner, and settled into the hotel room and watched The Simpsons. We knew we’d have a busy day Monday, so we got to sleep nice and early.
Saturday: L.A. Is My Bitch
We’re back from our trip to Los Angeles. We did a lot in five days. In the end, both of us agreed it was the best trip ever. I will have some photos to share later on, but first a travelogue of what we did. I was going to write up all of our trip in one blog post, but there was simply too much! For now, I will regale you with what we did the first day.
- Saturday — An early morning. Left at 5 a.m. and got to Long Beach at about 10:30. We had a lunch scheduled later on with our friend Dan (who lives there; lucky him), so after finding a parking spot we walked around the piers and the commercialized areas around the aquarium. It’s funny how, after all these years, the ocean is so exotic to me. Since Christopher was in a seafood mood, we settled at the King’s location downtown for a long lunch of good conversation with Dan. This was an excellent, relaxing way to start off our trip! We said our goodbyes to Dan and headed off through the treacherous freeways towards downtown L.A. (actually, the traffic was surprisingly okay for L.A. the whole time we were there). After a bit of confusion with the one way streets, we finally located the fabboo Westin Bonaventure Hotel where we were booked for two nights. I always loved this hotel, going back to when it was the setting for the waitressing sitcom It’s a Living. Architecturally, the place is forever stuck in a retro-futuristic ’70s, which is totally cool with me. It’s also laid out in a crazy way, with elevators going only to certain floors and restaurants and shops perched confusingly on rounded balconies above the expansive lobby. I dug it! Luckily, our wedge-shaped room was furnished with tasteful late ’00s decor. Later that night, we met with Christopher’s old friend Shirley for dinner. Shirley once worked as Edith Head’s assistant and now has an office at FIDM (where the current Project Runway season was filmed). She had tons of entertaining stories about everyone from Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn to Joan Crawford. It was such a trip driving around in her car and having her point out every important building in the area! She took us to a trendy Beverly Hills eatery called Orso. This place had the neatest outdoor patio with giant trees and subtle lighting in an environment that vaguely reminded me of the restaurant inside Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean. As we sat down, I noticed a beautiful woman sitting at the table next to us that looked exactly like actress Wendy Malick of Just Shoot Me fame. I tried hard not to stare (luckily she was in the same sightline as Christopher), but this lady did speak with actressy hand gestures to the gentleman dining with her, so I’m gonna say it was her (and damn, she looked great). Although it was after 11 p.m. when we finished our meal, we weren’t exhausted at all. Shirley drove us around, showing us Bullock’s Wilshire, Paramount Pictures and all the fancy homes in that area. All in all, a night that could only be described as magical.
Dog-Gone (Temporarily)
For the next week, Scrubbles.net will be on vacation in Los Angeles. While we won’t be able to visit a locale as exquisite as the dog-shaped café above, we have a full itinerary and will be taking tons of photos to share later. See you then!
Image from California Crazy by Jim Heimann and Rip Georges.
Experiment, Refresh, Repeat
The Scrubbles.net redesign continues … after a lot of trial and tribulation, the layout is now the way I originally envisioned it to be. Unfortunately, the header looks a bit lost — downright illegible, even — amid the background pattern. Back to Photoshop for more tweaks. The final design will be here, eventually.
There’s also the cross-platform issue. Although this page looks fine ‘n dandy in Safari and Firefox on my Mac, I’ve noticed that viewing it with Internet Explorer on Windows seriously screws with the layout. Apparently it displays just a header and a footer with nothing in between. This might be an issue only with older versions of IE or Windows. PC users, can you give me any feedback on how the site looks on your end?
