Sinds we got the new stove everyone at RAID seems to be more active in terms of cooking. I actually made a Tabouleh salad. It was the first time I did some more or less 'real' cooking, though the stove doesn't work yet. The workstation around the 'new' stove is apparently very inspiring.
Below some typical Los Angeles views. The contours of the hills are amazing. They are like drawings.
This might be a good idea for all of my cars (last week I realized I have three cars registered to my name. Non of them is working like they're supposed to):
So I've washed the Geo Prizm and now I'm driving around with a plaque on it that sais: For Sale. We'll see what happens. It actually looks a bit sellable now, the car. I feel a little awkward driving around with the damn thing, not only because of the For Sale sign but mostly because I'm afraid it'll get me stuck again.
Anyway, I drove up to Beverly Hills today, to hang around there but it wasn't that adventurous. People stare at me everywhere, maybe because I'm quite tall around here. I got a lot of comments on my boots. That's sometimes a bit of an annoying thing around here: whenever you enter a shop someone asks you: 'Hi how are you?' and you're supposed to answer that with: 'I'm fine, how are you?', but it doesn't mean anything. So I just kind of smile a bit. The same with walking down the street, people make remarks, that come out of nowhere but out of some sort of politeness you are expected to give a quick reply. If you don't - when I'm walking, I'm minding my own business and I'm not that fast with witty replies so I'm usually not reacting - they'll reply for you. It's like walking around in Amsterdam, where everyone seems to have something to say.
The guy lying down on this bench on a street in Beverly Hills didn't seem to care for anything, though:
He was sleeping in front of a store that shouted out 'Rock 'n Roll' in big letters on the windows. It was fake and lame as hell. Beverly Hills is defenitely not the place to be, but hanging around places in general is my speciality so I sort of enjoyed myself anyway.
This is the place to be:
It's a recordstore called 'The Record Collector' - same name as one of the recordstores in Antwerp. But this is a whole other level. I was there for one hour, just before closing time and I only went through the soundtracks-area. I ended up with a pile that was worth over 2000 dollars, so I had to make some serious decisions. Still, I spent more money over there than I did at an earlier visit at Amoeba Records. When I entered 'The Record Collector' I couldn't breathe or move for over ten seconds. I've been to a lot of recordstores but you can sense the value of the records in that space somehow. The owner was fantastic, a great guy. The place is on 7809 Melrose avenue. Someone needs to keep me out of recordstores because I'll be as broke as the state of California if I go into another one. You can order special requests through the internet: www.therecordcollector.net (THE RECORD COLLECTOR, his businesscard sais: RARE & UNUSUAL RECORDS, the owner is called Sanders Chase).
On his site there's this text:
"You can find any record using our special vinyl service to
submit wish list.
You will not have to look anywhere else."
