busblog

i shoulda made this picture bigger, but i didnt wanna make people hungry.

Saying Goodnight to Midnight Tacos

my favorite burrito place is closing

the LA Times said so yesterday in a feature so big it’s gotta get prominence in the Food section on Saturday or my name isn’t HR Puffnstuff.

the writer did a good job on talking to the owners and getting some good stories out of them but she didn’t say much about the neighborhood, the food, the vibe, the movie that was shot there or what it was like pre-pandemic.

it was a wild mix of every culture, sexual background, type of fashion, and level of sobriety. it is exactly what you’d want in a spacious big city taqueria where the prices are reasonable and sometimes the food is outstanding.

anyway i was working on one thing, trying to get another thing done before today, and worrying about a third thing when i read about this and i spent the rest of the night working on it.

shout out to Apple Photos who lets you search things by where they are on the map. I have over ten years of pictures from that place.

something i left out of the piece but maybe i should toss in there but nah is this

sometimes i would take dates there to see how they reacted. it’s a divey joint. freaky at times. despite the signs, occasionally shit goes down there.  it’s nice to know who you’re dealing with and a place like that will elicit responses, let me tell you.

but ultimately the food wins you over every time.

LA has maybe 10 million taco joints. but losing this one hurts.

heres the hard thing about blogging: keeping it real. 

we live in polite society.

we also live among humans and humans love gossip. 

so on your blog you can either have no friends no job no life and 100% keep it real on your amazing blog and be perez hilton – and noone wants that

or you can say nothing in heres true but still withhold like 99% of your life

or you can somehow tip toe around everything and attempt to make general stories that could apply to anyone. but seriously how many of us are the Brothers Grimm? 

so when your blog cms changes and you cannot revert back safely, you feel as though you were already floating in space, but now you have been detached from the space ship. 

its just you and your suit against the world. and you may stop breathing soon.

which is exactly what they want you to think.

the agency thought i could do something last minute on a saturday right before i was supposed to be jetting to the airport

and i was all, double, they were all, forget it. i was like syanarya. they were all thats not even how you spell it.

because i am toooooo nice for my own good i did it and got the greatest uber driver to take me to the airport andelay. super cool. i asked him where he is from he said, i am from mexico my friend. i said where?

and listen to this he told me he was nervous about trump. i said hes not gonna win. he said but im nervous and heres what im thinking, so he deports us. good. maybe thats the best thing to make mexico strong. maybe the mexicans like me in the US work hard. maybe we are smarter. maybe we have learned english. maybe we have learned skills here. maybe if we bring it all back to mexico in large amounts. maybe we can kick out the criminals who run so many things in mexico and maybe we can make it a great country. a strong country.

i said, a better version of canada?

he said, our food and weather are already better.

and then we talked about tacos for the rest of the ride. being from Michoacán he was all about the carnitas. i was all, how long have you been in LA? he said, 12 years. i was all wheres the best carnitas in LA? he said, in my belly, thanks to my wife.

mark johnson has been crashing with me. today he wanted breakfast, so i called up emilo and said we’ll be in DTLA in 25 minutes. we all met and went over to Cliftons which has great breakfast and who knew it, a jazz band. dude played flute, clarinet, sax. really good jazz too. then we wanted a beer to wash it all down so we went to the former LA Brewing Co. which is now Beirgarten LA. and who do we run into, Mr. Ben Sullivan and his fiancee and her amigos.

as Dov would say, “that’s Los Angeles.”

two of my favorite BC bloggers Miss 604 and keira-anne.com have come to your favorite southern california metropolis and they really wanted to go to a Dodger game.

why? well because all they have in vancouver is professional softball and semi-pro ping pong

and lord knows they dont have Super Dodger Dogs

thanks to a fascinating dude who went to camp with Rebecca, we got incredible lower level seats (for free) that were perfectly situated in the shade and yet pretty much right behind home plate

the dude is named Preston and he travels around the nation where he creates art based on baseball stadiums. he also draws Disney princesses sporting the baseball jerseys of the park he’s at. he tweets where he is sitting and his fans come running to collect free art.

it was a hot day on Saturday so we walked around the park to take in the sights. it was Keira’s first MLB game.

it was also my first Dodger game of the year, so when we bought beers i was so shocked that it cost $17 a beer that it didn’t sink in until yesterday that the Dodgers were gouging their fans that horribly.

$17 is more than i pay for a half a tank of gasoline.

how is one beer equal to half a tank of gas?

Magic Johnson and the Dodgers should be ashamed.

to protest we drove over to Echo Park and drank MexiCokes and ate real tacos

then we went to Mohawk Bend and drank actual beers

and then we went to Tony’s Bar in DTLA and ate actual pizza next door.

along the way we even picked up Emilio Reyes (not pictured) and had a delicious brunch.

everyone went to Disneyland yesterday. today and tomorrow expect to see some pool party action.

so i said chris lets go to the taco fest in east LA!

he said si so ali go tix and we tapped up our tap cards and took the red line to the gold line

and arrived at the 4th annual taco fest!

this was the beer garden.

yep.

after a few beers things started looking better but we werent there for beer

it coulda been a mirage but magically a tequila tasting appeared in the beer tent

but we werent there for tequila

we were at the Taco Fest for TACOS!

unfortunately so were thousands of people and only 8 taco tents.

so the lines were loco.

at the temps were super hot.

and the lines barely moved because apparently it takes forever to put meat on a taco

there were no lines to buy ice cream from the ringy dingy man

or talk to the wireless spokesmodel with tube socks

but we’ve been around the block a few times and weirdly ALL of LA has tacos.

so we split and drank some japanese white oak whiskey

and thought about how weird it was that the only place you couldnt have a beer while you ate tacos

WAS AT THE LA TACO FESTIVAL

so we went downtown to a place where you could play pinball and drink beer

a little place called 82 which is always packed at night, but in the day its air conditioned and lovely

your dad is even there and hes great at pinball

great call, Ali, thank you for taking us there

so after the beers and shots and more beers Ali wanted to show us something she learned in Venice

and we loved it.

and rarely take advantage of the never-ending breadth of diversity and discovery

that this amazing metropolis has to offer

sure they may convince themselves that they get out but seriously

do we have to make an LA bingo game to show you how few squares you can scratch off

beyond the 5 mile radius of your boring little comfort zone?

got invited to drink in Highland Park with ben and ken and brendan and shelley

so i got on the metro and omg got out of the hollywood bubble. care to join me? great!

Continue reading “its amazing to me how many people in LA stay in their safe little neighborhoods”

and their lovely daughter who i will just call Adorabelle

ken and ben were there, as is law.

But then we ate tacos.

Which led to guacamole

Which led margueritas

Which led to drunken discussions

about saving the world

but thankfully ended

In French fries

Sacre Blu!

my mom, the bible, the cubs, isla vista
waterbeds, vegas, anna kournikova
and drive thru

kyle fitzpatrick continues to kill it and today was a perfect example,
an interview with someone i never heard of about things very near and dear to my heart

How many times have you visited Los Angeles? What do you think of the city?

I have been to L.A. about 8 to 10 times. It’s such an interesting city to me. I come from a city where I don’t have to drive and tacos are $3. Here you have to drive and tacos are $1. I guess you have to give and take.

read and see the rest here

photo by Paul Octavious