I still don’t *really* understand what this site is or who uses it, but they gave me a (pro-bono) chance to shout out my favorite places for food, music, booze, caffeine, etc. in Los Angeles. Plus, they promised to call me an expert. To see my picks, go to Utrip, click “See Itinerary,” and then enter an arbitrary date (you’re not going to do this, I know, it’s okay). From there (ha), click on the little “Overview” tab above the map. FINALLY, you can scroll down Continue reading
This site was relaunched in November of 2015, but the blog’s been around since April of 2009. It’s been through many changes, so what lies beyond is almost certainly not formatted properly and often (yuck) written in third person. It’s also incomplete. I’m still filling in my two-plus years as a SPIN staffer, and moving even older posts over to this site. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We did a little moonlighting for Rosebud. Jumped at the opportunity, in fact, to talk to a man who’s not only licked the Amazonian sapo frog, but ingested legit zombie dust (via The Serpent and the Rainbow) supplied by a Haitian shaman. Check out the chat with Hamilton Morris, host of Vice’s Pharmacopeia, here.
Wrote about our favorite place to get cross-eyed, leap on a buddy’s back and sing Hall & Oates like it hasn’t already gone out of style (but is, in fact, in the act thereof). Lots of fun text from the LA Weekly team. Read here. Happy Friday.
[VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED TO PROTECT AUTHOR’S DIGNITY]
In which A.V. Club readers ask us: “Congress has passed a law requiring all people to get a pop-culture-related tattoo. What would you get and why?” Check out the entire list here. My response excerpted below …
Do we get tax breaks for already being branded? I’ve got four tattoos so far, and they’re all music-related. Here’s the inventory: Left wrist, inside: A cartoonized teardrop with legs, the latter making up the “LL” in the words circling it, “WE ALL TRY.” That’s a reference to the Frank Ocean song that really truly helped me contextualize my recent divorce (the teardrop dripping down from the ring hand, signifying loss, gangsta-style). Left bicep, outside: A Keith Haring-style bottle of booze and vinyl record holding hands and walking, the logo for a retired L.A. experimental music night dubbed “Calling All Kids,” which was named for the Arthur Russell song. Left wrist, inside: A pen-drawn character with the words “funny ha ha” coming out of his mouth in loopy cursive. It was inspired partly by cLOUDDEAD lyrics and custom-drawn for me by Yoni Wolf of WHY? and cLOUDDEAD. Right shoulder, outside: A super badass skull woodcut piece lifted from the cover of a dusty old classical record I picked up that happened to be Hector Berlioz’ 1830 opium-fueled opus, Symphonie Fantastique, an incredibly trippy piece that Leonard Bernstein acknowledged as the birth of psychedelia in music. (I lucked out on the justification behind that one.) So, yes, obviously my next tattoo is gonna be a “#HIPSTER” tramp stamp.
There’s a ton more that I’m moving over from the old site (Aural Standards). Stay tuned.
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