Amanda "Passionately Pimpin" P.'s Profile

This review is dedicated to Art Show 2011, which actually is supposed to end this week, 12/29, but may in fact go longer, which his prior show Life Is Beautiful did. I feel like reviewing an art exhibit can be a little iffy, considering how subjective art is, and the fact that the whole street art thing isnt everyones cup of tea, and many in the art world HATE Mr. Brainwash. As a result of that, I feel that gives people all the more reason to go. I adore street art more so as a phenomenon; the art itself is super fun, but its whatever; I mean really, most of what youre looking at you can pass on the streets of Los Angeles any day, and often times you will brush it off as trash. This newfound hype over street art pays appreciation to the significance, and has turned it into "art". It is art; art has no rules. It can be viewed essentially as art for those who arent really artsy types; its pop culture.. Its fun, its bright, its loud, it has messages packaged in a culturally relevant way, and well, its just COOL. Art Show 2011 is housed in a gigantic run down building on La Brea, 4 or so stories high; a GREAT location. Theres stuff everywhere, and you will immediately be drawn to the larger, flashier installations ( life size Darth Vader, enormous Mr Potato Head, Colonel Sanders locked in a jail cell held captive by chickens, a corner of stuffed animals piled high), but in between the lines there is a zillion little details to observe; random tags and graffiti scribblings, Warhol style screen prints. Mr Brainwash isnt the artist of much, and its why most people love to hate him. Most of the space is turned over to other artists; in fact he is widely know to have mostly an assemblage of graphic designers and artists construct his visions. Its all very Warhol-esque, and people slam him for being unoriginal, but who doesnt copy? There is so much to look at here, and so much that just makes you go, "ha! that is effing dope." Alot of it is stuff they show in the (mock)doc Exit Through the Gift Shop, and if you truly want a better perspective on MBW do see that film. Hes a man of mystery, and he is not what he seems; we may never know what/ who he truly is (Banksy? One of the Banksy's? Thats  my theory anyway.) MBW himself was there in the outside lot signing autographs, and boy is he an animated character. Upon entry they lay out tons of free prints so you go home with free art, which is awesome. Also, make sure you check out the stairwells, which were taken over by  The Seventh Letter Crew, a group of amazing graf artists. Most of the crowd is so subsumed with the big flashy stuff, the installations, that they easily passed by what I consider to be the true art, contributed by these guys. Love or hate this kind of stuff, MBW gets people talking, and you can call him a fake, and a thief,  but at the end of the day he/they/whoever he/they are, is laughing all the way to the bank; MBW doesnt take itself too seriously, and neither should you. Leave your art snobbery at the door, and enjoy.

I can't say enough good things about my first ever experience at a Fortune Cookies; I never even knew they existed until opening this location! I was so impressed with everything, especially the amazing service.  The decor inside was really nice, which I didnt expect for some reason; Chinese is usually synonomous with casual, in my mind; and they even have a fancy bar with flat screens to sit at (beer and wine only I believe). They have a pretty focused theme: Healthy chinese cuisine,  and while that seems generic and played out, Fortune Cookies is one Chinese place that really does commit to it, and practice what they preach. Everyhting can be modified, no hassle. I tend to order my Chinese w/ sauce on the side, and when they initially brought my spicy tofu WITH the sauce, and I insisted about 5 times they not take it back as I hate to waste, they still brought me out a new order right away, sans sauce. AND they boxed up the first one, the saucy one, for me to take home and not waste. They list the calories for the entrees in the menu (love!!) and for a half dish (all dishes come shared style) it averaged around 300-400. we had the spicy tofu, and chicken w/ eggplant, and a fancy sushi roll. (They also have a full on sushi menu). And the price for all this fanciness was excellent! About $10 a plate.  As for the service, it was impeccable, almost too good. Our server was awesome at praising her comapny, checking on us every 5 minutes, refilling drinks, chatting w/ us, insisting she accomodate any slight thing we might want or not want. In addition to her, several other waitstaff members swung by regularly to check our refills, etc. Now, I realize it was grand opening week and theyre on their best behavior, but you can trust I will be back to check on their skills and make sure they stay in shape! Welcome to the hood, and hopefully you will stay longer than all the other 30 businesses that have been here before.

I'm somewhat hesitant to rave about it, because what if people listen and then they change the specials cause they get so busy? But no one reads my reviews so I'm probably safe. I'm in love with this place so far, in regards to their happy hour, which is M-Sat (yup Saturday. Dang I love me a weekend HH) and goes from 5-8Pm. We stumbled here post-MOCA trip, pre-hockey game meal, and I think we found our weekend pre-game spot. Its a large space upstairs in the Japanese Plaza, and it was practically empty (though it was only about 5:30). They have lots of seating, and some tables located in nooks and crannies. It kind of felt like a seafood restaraunt, like I was in a ship or something...They have a section in the beginning that we agreed would be perfect for a big group to watch a game, as its right in front of a huge flat screen and sort of sectioned off from the rest. They have a buffet ($10) that wasnt impressive enough to convince me but looked ok. We ordered (from the HH menu)  2 glasses of wine, 1 large asahi, chicken karage, the fried tofu, and from the non-HH one tuna roll, and an Ahi bowl. Everything was yummy and the portions were generous. The karage was great.. What was the total you ask? $20. Yup. I said it. Even as I type this, I wonder if it was a mistake... We sat at the bar with several tv's to face; the only other patrons at this time were a few regulars at the bar, and maybe one or two groups at tables.
Parking does suck around here, but the lot across the street is only $4. Factor that in and youve still spent less than any other dinner outing. So heres my advice; check out a Saturday Kings game, or any Kings game for that matter, and eat here before, and thank me later.

Im losing hope & patience with this store. Ive had way too many visits in a row where i left empty handed- not a good sign. Theres alot of clothing eye candy inside, in that i get excited the first few minutes as i look around. When it gets to the nitty gritty and finding a worthy purchase,  its been a fail. Cute stuff that looks terrible on; cute dresses with too few sizing selections. (we get it- you cater to size small. ) Cute stuff, but definitely generic, and I know of plenty other stores where I can get similar fashions and walk out with way more, and pay less. Theyre prices are basically $25-$30 dresses, $15-$18 tops. Theres usually about 2-4 selections of the same dresses, and lately its seemed more of an average of 1-3,  and in the past they seemed to be really good at making sure there was at least one of each size, but now theyll almost all be a small. Are you trying to tell us something? If youre a girl and you shop at these cheap-o girty stores, you know that the sizes of S, M, L arent necessarily realistic ones. A large doesnt even mean youre a large person, but a small is often pretty small. Lastly, the staff is soooo unfriendly. Could they act any more bored?? The owner (i think; small asian lady) is probably the worst; she barely even speaks to you when you ask her something directly. She acts so stuck up, and I just think its uncomfortable when theres an unfriendly vibe during clothes shopping. You want to feel warm and welcomed, when youre doing something as personal as searching for things to put on your body; you want to feel confident, not mad-dogged. If youre shopping at super ghetto Fashion District type places where English isnt a prime language, who cares, you get the service you pay for; but this place tries to be more boutique-y and stylish, so it needs a properly mannered staff. She just stands around & kind of stares at you, almost like she thinks youre not good enough to be in there. Im over it. Ill be damned if they get my money. Their shit aint even all that.

***Don't go here!!! *****
After a successful morning of car repairs on the dudes whip, our last stop was to throw some new tires on. He was pleased to find El Paisa quoted him $100 for 2 of them. We dropped it off and took a walk to the boulevard for some lunch; they would be done in about 30 minutes. Maybe we were gone 45-1hour, but we did hurry back so as not to keep them waiting, just in case. Only as we started to get in the car did he notice a lugnut on the ground next to the tire; and THATS when the kid responsible for the work bothered to mention that he had to break the lug nut off entirely. His excuse was he could not change the tire w/ out breaking the lug, because of the way it was screwed on, and that he "waited for us to come back to see if he should break it off or not, but we didnt come back in time." Thats right, he just broke it! Leaving the tire with 3 lug nuts instead of 4, which is NOT safe!!! And then he just left the lugnut on the ground and didnt say anything!! He knew what he did, he was just hoping we wouldnt notice!! Ian tried to reason with them, and have them fix it, yet they claimed not to have the part available to do so. He said its less than $5, if we purchase the part he would do the work to repair it. We were done with them; unfortunately for us, the rest of our afternoon was set back, since we didnt feel safe driving back to LA until it was fixed. We drove around the AV making several stops to get the right piece, then my bf and his brother spent an additional 3-4 hours putting it on the tire themselves; not because they dont know how, because thats just how long of a job it was, the way it needed to be done. Had we even taken it back to the shop for them do it themselves and fix their mistake, they never would have bothered to take that time. Needless to say we were stuck in Lancaster another night. This business is shady, and if they were ethical they would have been concerned for the safety issue; if anything happens follwing their shoddy work, they would have been liable. It's not worth it to come to junky place like this; go to a real tire place.

It pains me a little bit to give this joint 3 stars; its technically worth 2 but considering its the only one I ever end up at, since its across from work, and the staff is so nice and several of them bother to remember my name (no, not because I just checked in and they see it on the screen) it's lame for me to say it sucks. It's an Active, basically meaning its small, and this one is super tiny. There's really no open space if you want to spread out, stretch, do some mat exercises; you have to squeeze yourself awkwardly on the floor somewhere by everyone on the machines leering over you, since there are always classes in the main room. I feel like the machines have improved a little at being in operating order; there was a time when several of them were always out of service. Some of the ellipticals are kind of janky though and they could stand to be replaced. If you work in the surrounding area, which is the case for most of the regular patrons, it makes it easy to convince yourself to get to the gym during the week. There's some pretty decent eyecandy, however, mainly in the form of some FINE ass brothas; if thats your thing ladies. And come on isnt it secretly all of ours?

I'm still a fan; I reiterate this because there's some Yelpers on here who need to get off their high horse and pull the stick out of their ass. The pizza, in my opinion, is great, and among my top faves. As far as the service, the times that I've eaten in its usually pretty on point. I mean come on its kids working in a pizza joint, give em a break.  What I usually do is call ahead of time, and let them know I'll have it to dine in. This is pizza, after all- they arent throwing it in the microwave. Be patient. I always have special requests (side of ranch, side of hot sauce, extra crutons, add this add that) and the staff is always happy to accomodate me.

If youre a tween-ager & can't get your parents to drive you to Universal Studios, Knotts Scary is a viable option. If you care about quality, take your $50-plus to Uni studios. Knotts had alot of mazes, but the production value was so meh. They were basically glorified next door neighbors haunted houses. My main gripe is with the monsters; theres an overrall vibe that no one really takes their job seriously. First off, their costumes were often times kinda sad. Most of them just wore a crappy mask & looked like they threw their outfit together in a last minute pit stop to the Halloween store. They all looked like they were told to just dress up for a costume party.They often hung out & talked to each other in addition to conversing with the crowd! For me that just kills it. You cant talk to us! You have to be in character! I was humoured by it, but at that point any chance of taking them or the scare potential seriously is out the door.In addition it felt like there was a bit of a monster defecit, in that many times throughout the night at least 15-20 minutes would go by without a single sighting. Theyre supposed to be crawling out of the corners everywhere you go! I wanted to give it 2 stars but I felt bad because Knotts is, well WAS the grandaddy of these horror nights, so it just seems unfair.  All things are at risk of falling victim to something younger & shinier & prettier, as Knotts Scary has, but it will always deserve props and you can't deny that it does have a good time in mind for you. Its a silly fun time, not a scary one, which is cool, but for what youre paying its best to take it to the big dogg right now, Universal.

I love small independent clothes stores; I consider it an extension of the owners closet. And this place has really cute pieces; lots of pretty dresses in the $40- $50-ish range, on average. Everything reminded me of things that would be found on http://modcloth.com. So in other words, I'm still not compelled to leave the house (its so much easier to shop via click on the mouse than it is for my disabled ass to run around town) but check it out if youre in the hood! Its a lovely silver lining in the musty smell that is 4th st Retro Row.

Fabulous thrifting experience! The place is huge, and has tons of stuff to peruse, yet its easy to navigate. The clothes are color coordinated, which helps. One of the first items I touched was a black mod-like dress, with these cute big button (faux) pockets; less than $2!! I also found a brown bomber jacket, EXACTLY like what I had been fantasizing about and shopping online for the week prior, just hangin out, for $4.95!!! I snatched up a few other pretty vintage-y looking tops. In the back there is a furniture section, where I came across a little bed side dresser with a drawer, which I'm not sure if it was a genuine antique but had the look, for $19.95. I didn't think much of it and I passed it by without much thought, but that night I strangely had a dream about it, and the instant I woke up my gut was telling me, "i think you shouldl go get that dresser..." I did so the next day, and you know what? Its one of my favorite items I've purchased in a while!! Thus making it one of the strangest dreams Ive ever had... I will be hittin up California Blonde every time I'm in the area.