Golden Apple

Here’s A Long Los Angeles Recap

Phew.

I had a great time in Los Angeles yesterday.

I left at quarter of 9, and traffic started immediately. Luckily though, I was not late for the Web405 brunch at Du-Par’s. Excellent company and a lovely traditional breakfast (eggs over easy and turkey links). Good to see old colleagues and meet new friends too. Dennis was a class act as usual, and I got to see Bill Kelley and finally meet Joanna Minneci who I’ve known virtually for a few years, and finally met in person. After Du-Pars we all sojourned to The Grove, a new mall adjacent to Farmer’s Market—where we took a gander at their Apple Store.

I was wearing the Jaguar T-Shirt I got the night before at the San Diego Apple Store. Now, those of you who have met me know I’m a large fellow. Well, I’ve been wearing XXL for 4 years, maybe longer. This shirt is XL, and pretty much fits. I think for new shirts it’s going to be on a case by case basis what my size actually is. But but my clothing sizes are clearly changing. This is a good thing.

After the Apple Store the ‘405ers parted ways and I headed out to the streets of L.A.

I’ve always liked driving in Los Angeles.

Let me say that again. It bears repeating. I’ve always liked driving in Los Angeles.

At this point I will point out that I am indeed undergoing counseling, but that “the driving in L.A.” has not come up as a character flaw. It may be the novelty of it, I don’t get up to L.A. often, so I’m romanticizing it.

The through-line of this post has drifted. Pardon me. Let’s get back on track. Shall we?

After Farmer’s Market I did what I said I was going to do Saturday morning. I headed first for Opamp Books. What a great technical bookstore that is. I set a limit on my spending beforehand. Budgeting is important. I ended up walking around with several books, including Kynn’s CSS Book and a book on Proposals and Software specifications, but I ended buying with three books. All of them have real practical value to me now. They are: Mac OS X Pocket Reference, VBScript Pocket Reference, and The Computer Consultants Guide: Second Edition: Real Life Strategies for Building a Successful Consulting Career.

I have a habit when buying technical books. I decide on a task that maybe I have done with technology, or with a similar technology, and see if the book would have helped me. I chose the proposal/negotiation process I recently went through. I checked the consulting book’s index. On looking, it brought up things that I did not think of. This makes the book a winner! Also, the VBScript book explicated some things about some functions I used on the ASP/Microsoft Access Project which is slowly finishing up. And the OS X Pocket Guide had so many good tiplets and productivity ideas I thought it was a good idea to have. I don’t have any OS X books yet. Well, now I do.

Next on the Tour de Librerías de Los Angeles was Aron’s Records. I picked up some cheap used CDs and movies. Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy a Thrill, Matthew Sweet’s In Reverse, Alanis Morissette’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (I’ve been listening to the song So Pure so compulsively in the past year or so I figured I should get the whole record). I also got Zappa’s “Francesco Zappa” and Randy Newman’s Bad Love. On the cheap VHS movie front, I got Get Shorty (a very “L.A.” movie) and a widescreen version of Mister Roberts, a favorite of mine since I was a kid.

My habit at stores with large used sections, like Aron’s, is to go through ALL the CDs. That’s what I did – went from Z to A looking at everything. When I worked at the library there were two tasks we Library Aides would do that looked at every item on the shelves. We would do “reading” – which was looking at every book on the shelves and assure they were in order. And “maintaining” – which is straightening up each and every book to make sure the spines were flush with the edge of the shelves themselves. I think my speed with those tasks makes me somehow more patient. Like I can get myself to look at every one of the CDs at Aron’s because I was equipped to do that in a job I had 14 years ago.

It was hot in L.A. yesterday. The car was really good. Luckily, the Joe-Mobile does have good air conditioning. But I was thirsty. And I tell you, on a hot day, Gatorade is a wonderful thing.

I hit Golden Apple Comics after that. It’s on Melrose Avenue. Melrose is a street Erin and Tracy and I used to explicitly go down to see what was cool. Not that we were cool, but we liked to see what was cool. Lots to see. People dressed every which way. Kids in mohawks, for all the world looking like 70’s era punks. I also saw a young woman, no more than 17, perfectly outfitted in a black miniskirt, punky blonde and black hair, and an English Beat T-shirt. She could have been an extra in a John Hughes movie! (Probably Sixteen Candles). I was disappointed, I didn’t find the Wonder Woman or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books I had pined for a few weeks ago. I did pick up ‘Nuff Said. ‘Nuff Said is a reprinting of several Marvel Comics which are entirely wordless. They also include the original scripts after each story. As a pure exercise in wordless storytelling it seems pretty interesting. As a visual designer, keeping my visual mind active is important. Seeing the solutions visual artists come up with to communicate with their audience definitely provides me with inspiration.

After that I went down to the Santa Monica Promenade. I had planned to go to Hennessey+Ingalls. However, H+I was closed early. There was a sign indicating that they were closed because the staff was all at a wedding. This, obviously was a bummer. So I spent some time wandering on the Promenade. The Promenade is several blocks of shops, with many street performers – some singers, and a pair od dancers in Aztec dress (full headdresses!). I ended up going to Midnight Special Books. Again mostly browsing. How can there be so many good books out there? I was resigned to leaving without anything, but then I came across

Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa. Oh no, not another Zappa book. I started to checking out some sections, hoping it would be a book I could avoid. But the author has some good ideas – a nice melding of biography and criticism. So I bought the book, and read about 50 pages of it while having a Turkey Burger at the unfortunately named Fatburger.

It’s at this point I’ll note I’m down 60 pounds since this all started 3 months and 3 weeks ago. Weight loss has not been a goal per se, but it’s come along with having better activity and dietary habits.

After that I headed home. The “check engine” light went on the Joe-Mobile. Ugh. I checked the oil, it was indeed low, so I put in oil, and was on my way. My car is now 14 years old, and it has some quirks. One quirk is that it burns oil at an increased rate. As long as it does what it must, I’m happy.

The drive back was fine. I listened to my audiobook of Neuromancer (always a favorite), and the sun went down as I hit the toll road 73 in Orange County. People all over the world, and in most parts of the USA, are used to toll roads. But here in California a toll road is an oddity. Almost, Un-American. But it did make the trip a bit shorter.

When I got home I had messages on my machine from three wonderful women. That’s always a good thing. Today I’ve followed up with all of them. I’m staying in today. Doing some work, some bills and such. Along with these mundanities, I’m watching movies and listening to the new acquisitions.

It’s nice when a weekend is so pleasant.

Brunch y Libros de Los Angeles y OSX.2 (Jaguar)
Today I’m headed to Los Angeles (pronounce the “g” with a hard “Guh” for that 1940’s effect) to have brunch at Du-Pars at Farmer’s Market. I’m going to try to hit my favorite L.A. bookstores after that: Opamp (technical books), Hennessey+Ingalls (art, design), Golden Apple (comics). I may try to hit Aron’s Records and the newsstand World Book and News in Hollywood.

I’m pretty tired—I stayed up late installing OSX.2. It was pretty painless process. The new iTunes is really awesome. Good software reaching for greatness. The interface and the program with the Smart Playlists can really “watch” your music library and what you do very nicely. Also, it appears that rendering speeds on my box are much faster. Mozilla seems much faster, which I was not expecting. Finder and file operations are MUCH faster so far. The new Address Book is nice as well, though I’m not using it yet. There are supposedly other new features coming close on the heels of OSX.2 too. So we’ll see.

Onward.

Third Best Comic Book Store Ever
While I was visiting Washington D.C. last week, my sister and I wandered around Georgetown a bit. In so doing one of the places we went was a place my sister had never been—Big Planet Comics. Now, I’ve lived all over. And I’ve been to a lot of comic book stores. My compliment that it is the third best is not a small one.

Big Planet is very clearly laid out. They actually store comic collections and graphic novels by author in many cases, very handy if you’re looking for say, works by Frank Miller or Alan Moore. They also have an extensive independent comics section of comics and collections that’s logically laid out. Most surprisingly, they have a great deal of foreign comics – French, German, Spanish. They also had a nice selection of new comics.

But they had more than “fancy” comics. They also had an extensive section of superhero graphic novels. I picked up two things (I can’t resist supporting a good store!)—The collected Earth X and Conversations with Charles Schulz. Both were worth the purchase. Earth X is beautifully done – but a bit heavy-handed and self-important. But it’s a fun read. The Schulz book is a collection of interviews with the Peanuts creator. The conversations span decades, and it’s a good read so far.

Now, about #1 and #2 in my “list” of Best Comic Book Stores. The best comic book store I’ve ever been to is Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles/Hollywood. They’re on Melrose Avenue, and have a tremendous selection of comics and magazines and toys and oddities. It’s also well laid out, and has lots of events with artists. A great store.

The second best store on my list would be Comic Kingdom, which was on University Avenue here in San Diego. I used to go to that one when I was younger (say, 17 to 25 years old?). The problem is, several years ago they went out of business. But they were great. Massive numbers of back issues, all the most current comics, books, collectibles. It was a great messy goulash of a store. Then one year, in my periodic trips to San Diego from Virginia while I was in RT school and working as an RT, I drove to the store and poof! No more store. That was a heartbreaker.