alittlecameo

A most wonderful chiropractor

April 23, 2011

A sore back from sleeping on an airbed for a month and hoiking furniture upstairs sent me on the quest to find a chiropractor.

After a couple of different experiences back home, I wanted to find someone who did minimal crunching and who had some other manipulation tricks up their sleeve. I did a search on Yelp.com which is a great review website where you can find information, reviews and ratings on all types of services from restaurants to mechanics to health professionals. It threw up a few names in my area and I came across Sally Kleinbart.

From her website it looked like more than a crunch-crunch experience, so I sent her an email and made my first appointment a few weeks ago.

I knocked on the door of her home, where she practices from, and was greeted by a friendly and totally chill Sally who I instantly liked for her down-to-earth attitude. After filling out something like five pages of paperwork which went from my contact details, to health issues, to my description of the pain and location, I signed my chiropractic care away to Sally.

Today was my third and final session with Sally (until the need arises again) and what I love about going to visit her is that she spends an hour with you and wants to get to the bottom of your back problems. I am amazed by what she can find as she gently moves her hands over your back. With the lightest of touches I can feel my back muscles moving and realigning in the correct spots. On my first visit she found that my diaphragm and liver were all knotted up together, and after working on this, the spasms in my back stopped. My sore lower back came from some swollen discs, that were coaxed back into place and then the pain disappeared. On my visit today she discovered more connective tissues all mixed up.

After all this gentle manipulation, which Sally calls ‘body sculpting’, there is a small amount of crunching to iron out anything else in the back or neck. I always leave her place feeling put back together again. It also goes to show that you should never underestimate the value of having a healthy and strong back. I had never really had back problems until I sought help from Sally, and I would be screwed if I had chronic back pain. I mean, if that was the case, how would I be able to hit the road with my backpack?

Twinkling tootsies

April 22, 2011

New pedicures — Our toes in the freebie thongs to keep the finish smooth. It’s great fashionable footwear, perfect for everyday use.

A treat was what our feet deserved after trampling all over Los Angeles in search of sights, sounds and male attention.

In the dying hours of Movie Lass’s visit, we popped into Harmony Nail Spa down the road for a bit of pampering. We were lucky to find two of the big massage chairs with foot baths next to each other and sat down to have a manicure and pedicure. As soon as I felt the massaging back of the chair start kneading my back and the warm water on my feet, I was blissed out.

Two ladies worked on us at a time, one on the hands and one at our feet buffing and polishing. What made it even better was that our legs, feet, arms, necks and hands got a relaxing massage.

It was perfect for Movie Lass before her 15 hour flight back to Australia. And it was the icing on the cake of our LA adventure with a girly outing.

A Mulholland drive

April 21, 2011

In our beat up little mechanics replacement car we were driving while Esmeralda was having her fan problem checked (yes, visit number four to the mechanic), we hit the roads of LA.

We started at Rodeo Drive. A stop at Wholefoods got us some lunch which we picnicked on at Via Rodeo, surrounded by posh shops and lampposts with cascading flower baskets and tourists. Rodeo Drive is a bit over-rated as a tourist destination, but it makes for an interesting little wander or drive if you want to pretend to re-enact Pretty Woman. The distinction between tourist destination and shopping destination is pretty hazy. Judging from the foot traffic, I’d say it attracts more tourists than shoppers, but that would hardly pay the rent on these massive flagship luxury brand stores. Getting out of Beverly Hills I heard the most number of car horns tooting than I’ve heard across the rest of LA. People must be so much more uptight, impatient and aggro here. A little further down the road is the craziest intersection I’ve had the pleasure of not crashing at. At the junction of N Beverly Drive, N Canon Drive and Lomitas Avenue it is a 6 way stop. This is an upgrade of the traditional 4 way stop (for which us Aussies would have a roundabout) where you all have to stop and then the person who got there first goes first, or otherwise the direction with the most traffic goes. It requires driver to driver communication, which always works better the lighter the tinting of the car. It also means you have to understand when it’s your go. At a 6 way stop there seems to be no real rules. You creep, creep out from the stop line painted on the road until you have claimed your turn and then you go for it. Miraculously there were no Mercedes Benz, BMW and Lexus pile ups. This is the second time I’ve driven through this intersection and the second time it has freaked me out. We drove up Beverly Glen Boulevard to the ridgetop Mulholland Drive. Made famous by famous people living there and the magnificent views of both Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, this highway is named after William Mulholland who was head of the LA Department of Water and Power and was responsible for building much of the infrastructure that supplies LA with water. While Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Highway stretches all the way from the Hollywood 101 freeway to Malibu, we drove only a short way, but appreciated the views from pull-ins and the winding road. At the last point of our drive, we stopped at an outlook that offered amazing views of downtown, the Hollywood Bowl and the Hollywood sign. Unfortunately this is also a stop on those bus tours and it got pretty clogged with them at about 5pm, so clogged we had to wait in the car to leave because one was blocking my exit from my park in a designated car space. I’d love to drive the whole section, but I think I will have to do it in small chunks because the windy road made me feel slightly carsick. Tips for driving Mulholland Drive:

Pull over if you start to hold up traffic
Stop at the designated points to admire the views
Give yourself plenty of time as the going can be slow

A parcel!

April 20, 2011

Arriving home after a day of sights and shopping with Movie Lass, I had the elation you get when a big box with your name on it is waiting for you.

My friend Cathy had posted a care package to me filled with all sorts of goodies from home. It was so lovely.

It included:

TV snacks
Uncle Toby’s muesli bars
Wagon Wheels
A tube of Vegemite
A pack of Saos
Wizz Fizz
Anzac biscuits
Vanilla essence
2 packs of Chocolate Ripple biscuits
Recipe for chocolate ripple cake

Topping it off was a lovely card emblazoned with the Mae West quote

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!

So now I can make a chocolate ripple cake (love, love, love) for our upcoming Easter lunch and have an Anzac bikkie or two on Anzac Day next week.

Thanks Cathy, you really brightened my day and I can’t wait to share these bits of home with my friends.

A deserted Beverly Center

April 19, 2011

With the Aussie dollar at such a great exchange rate, Movie Lass had to go shopping, so we went to the Beverly Center.

It’s a large shopping centre in LA with both a Bloomingdale’s and a Macy’s along with a stack of other shops. I was astounded by a few things there.

Unlike shopping centres in Australia, there were barely any seats in the concourse. I was weary and needed to take a seat, but it wasn’t until we were out in front of all the luxury brands like Prada were there any seats.
Again, unlike shopping centres at home, there weren’t really any mall furnishings like potted plants and bins. It felt like an empty warehouse.
Adding to the empty warehouse feel was that there were hardly any shoppers. The concourses were virtually deserted. I think it is a telltale sign of the economy that on a weekday evening during the spring break there was hardly anyone there. And those that were there were clearly tourists like ourselves.
Whilst in Bebe, an entourage of people descended upon the store and started asking questions about products, what was selling, pointing out bits and pieces that they loved. There was a clear leader and all the rest were here followers. Movie Lass asked a sales assistant who they were and apparently she is the visual designer for the store, so it must be going to have a makeover soon.

I am being very good at not getting caught up in the spending frenzy, trying to watch my pennies and not succumb to temptation. I did buy a bag, dress and skirt that I am going to need, but I spent less than $70 so that was okay.

More car woes (just not mine)

April 18, 2011

Today seemed to be the day that everyone else in my household’s cars decided to chuck spazzies.

I had a message from a friend staying with us to say her recently purchased car (as in purchased Friday three days ago) was playing up again (after already having been to visit the mechanic on day 1).

Then J called me on the way back from LAX to say that Brandon had stopped at an intersection and wouldn’t start and required a tow. She called me for my expert advice on dying cars given that Esmeralda has had two overheating issues and three tows. My advice was to call AAA (the equivalent of RACV or NRMA etc) and join up. With AAA you get four free tows of up to 7 miles each year. It’s an absolute necessity here.

So I guess if you are looking at buying a car in LA (and America) I have the following advice for you:

Cars are not as reliable as they are back home. The reputation cars have at home doesn’t necessarily translate to that of cars here.
If buying a used car, always buy a certified pre-owned car. This basically means the manufacturer has gone over it with a fine tooth comb and gives it a seal of approval.
Get a warranty. If something is going to go wrong, it WILL go wrong in the first month. I have at least three examples of this!
Find a good mechanic and check their reviews on Yelp.com. Put their contact details in your phone so you can ring them if you experience a problem and so you have their address to give if you need a tow.
Have a pool of contingency cash so you aren’t caught short when something does need to be fixed.
Don’t skimp on insurance. It is expensive, but absolutely essential.
Pony up to put the good gas in your car. Chevron is the most expensive, but is also the best quality. Whilst I am shopping for the cheapest gas for Esmeralda, I am putting in premium to keep her turbo engine happy.

If things go wrong, don’t despair. Everyone has a story of car woe. You arrive in LA and you have car issues. It seems to be de rigour, so don’t let it get you down, soldier on and things will get better.

Neverending freeways

April 17, 2011

I’ve had two days of driving the freeways and I have to say that they never seem to end.

Heading out to Venice yesterday we took the 10 freeway in a westerly direction. All the freeways in LA are known by their numbers which, until you are here, sound so confusing. For example, a friend recently posted to my Facebook wall the directions to Los Angeles airport. It read “101 south to 110 south to 105 west.” Anyone reading that back home would think it was some kind of code to find a treasure (in this case I did find a treasure at the end, Movie Lass).

However, once you get the hang of the traffic arteries, you can pretty much go anywhere. That said, a GPS with advanced lane assist makes things so much easier, especially when there are carpool lanes or you come to an intersection where, if you were looking from above, it would look like a bowl of grey spaghetti.

Today’s freeway adventure was driving Movie Lass east on the 10 freeway to Redlands, which is a lengthy 60 odd miles away. For some reason, in my head I equivalated 60 miles with 60km and wasn’t expecting the drive to be so far. In reality it was something of a 100km drive on a freeway with 6 lanes and walls, making it somewhat of a tunnel with nothing interesting to look at except the back end of cars passing me.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like driving here. But on my solo trip back home as I battled with bleary eyes from the long, hazy drive, I just kept thinking “there is no way I could do this in peak hour traffic.”

Venice: not all it’s cracked up to be

April 16, 2011

Venice Beach in California that is. My Lonely Planet Encounter guide says “Venice is just plain cool.” It then follows up by describing the oceanfront walk as “… a little bit crazy and a whole lot of fun.” I beg to differ.

Perhaps I should mention it right up front here, that I’m not a beachy person. Going to the beach has never really interested me. It’s a whole lot of sand that sticks to sweat and vestiges of salt water. It’s a whole bunch of waves pounding incessantly forming a tinnitus in my head. I just don’t find it a relaxing experience. I have seen a lot of beautiful beaches in my time and spent a good two months traversing the Brazilian coast where after a couple of hours at the beach, I was chomping for something more active and adventurous than lazing on a sarong. So for me, there is rarely anything charming about a city beach.

I went to Venice with Movie Lass to see the beach, walk the esplanade and observe the circus I had imagined it to be. I was kind of surprised to see the market stalls setting up as we arrived on a Saturday around 11am. That and getting a $15 park just one street back. I had been told to go on a weekend to see it at its craziest yet here we were in a relatively deserted place with crowds I would expect to find on a weekday, not a glorious 30°C Saturday.

Venice scene — Old guy rocking out in Venice

We started off checking out some stalls, for essentials like hats and sunglasses, but didn’t buy anything. In hindsight, we should have bought the hats when we first saw them because the sun started to beat down rays of redness. We wandered past Muscle Beach, an outdoor gymnasium where I saw a really toned chick with ginormous breasts giving instructions to two muscle-bound guys, but otherwise, it was fairly quiet and there weren’t any other dudes with thighs like huge hocks of ham working out.

It’s obligatory to dip one’s feet in the opposite side of the Pacific, so we crossed the wide stretch of sand to the shore where people were sunbathing, kids were building sandcastles and playing in the shallows, girls taking glamour shots of each other with the waves in the background and people running on the wet sand. Just your regular city beach. The water was freezing cold, yet there were still kids running in there.

Freebies — When they were handing out freebies, Movie Lass & I were there. Ping pong balls and free soft drink.

We walked north towards Santa Monica where the pier juts out ostentatiously and if we were so inclined, it would have been a good walk to go the whole way. But instead we had to feed our hunger so we walked back to the boardwalk and got a table at the Figtree Cafe, first in the burning sun, and then we moved to a table in the shade, although it wasn’t as great a place to watch the people go by.

I had been expecting it to be circus, with crazy people everywhere, weirdos, and glamazons, and fitness freaks. I guess I expected a lot more entertainment from the people watching than there was. Sure, there was a guy standing on a stool wearing a leopard print loincloth and holding real looking rubber snakes in his hands, and the guy spruiking tickets to see a two-headed turtle, but that was about it.

Venice canals — The beautiful canals of Venice, CA

Aside from the canals, which are really beautiful and peaceful, I didn’t find much to love in Venice. Maybe there’s some more charm for me hidden in the streets away from the beach, but since I’m not into the weed scene or beach scene, Venice is not my kind of place. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts about Venice Beach. What are your memories or experiences? Would you recommend it to your friends as a place to visit?

Hurricanes and tornadoes

April 15, 2011

I have no idea what a hurricane or tornado is like. I only have footage from television to inform me on this count.

So when Astra invited Movie Lass and I along to an artist’s talk at the Annenberg Space for Photography exhibit titled Extreme Exposure we decided to go and were fascinated by Mike Thiess’s presentation and commentary as a photographer and videographer of hurricanes and tornadoes.

We heard the story of how he documents these massive storms to show people why they should be evacuating and he gets right in to the eyewall so as to get the full brunt of the weather conditions rather than the relatively ‘gentle breezes’ of the outer zones where most film crews are getting their news footage after going through a major hurricane as a teenager in Florida.

We saw so many photos and video clips of hurricanes, the before, the during and the after, however I was most in awe of the tornadoes. The photographs of tornadoes are incredibly beautiful and totally blew my mind with the colours and contrasts and cloud formations. However seeing photos of Greensburg, Kansas tornado in 2007 where the entire town was torn apart and flattened, and seeing trees that looked like they’d gone through a mulcher had a great impact on me in terms of the severity and relentlessness of these storms. I don’t know how I could live in tornado alley where this type of threat is always a possibility.

In Australia we’ve had our share of major disasters this year with the floods in Queensland and Victoria and the cyclone in Northern Queensland, but for me, coming from a town where the major storm events are massive red dust storms and irregular floods, the idea of such strong winds is really foreign. But I now have a much greater appreciation for them.

In the studio backlot

April 14, 2011

Central Perk set — Kicking back on the Friends couch.

Movie Lass and I travelled around the Warner Bros studios in an oversized golf cart today on our VIP Studio Tour. I was very excited to do something really touristy, as none of my adventures so far seem to have ticked the “you are totally a tourist” box.

We started off in the back lot, seeing all the facades that they make to be any old street in New York or Chicago or other place. Different places were pointed out as locations from scenes in movies like The Mask and Spiderman, and also Central Perk from Friends, which definitely holds a soft spot for Warner Bros as their most successful TV series.

Passing some craft services set up, I took photos of the picnic chairs and tables and the cakes on display, ostensibly to inspire my next stint at craft services on a shoot.

Then we saw a scene of The Event being filmed, it was a driving scene, so we saw the car being towed by a truck with all the lights and cameras rigged to it. That was pretty cool, although I have no idea what this TV show is.

A stop at the costume museum was fascinating as we saw costumes worn by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, by the cast of Inception and The Town as well as some older films and little props and pieces from the sets. I liked seeing Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Cobb’s totem from Inception, the spinning top. Upstairs was a whole floor dedicated to Harry Potter and the most exciting bit, getting to sit on a stool and have the Sorting Hat put you in your house. I was delighted when it didn’t even hesitate to put me in Gryffindor! I think I would be good friends with Hermione and I would tease Ron mercilessly.

We checked out some soundstages, massive warehouses with rigging all in the roof and soundproofed walls. We were told how the pirate ship from the Goonies was built in Stage 16, as was the ship in Poseidon and that the first dream sequence of Inception had been built in there.

At the art department section we dodged trucks bringing back props to the warehouse and got to have our photo taken in Central Perk, preserved solely for the tourists on these tours.

I also went slightly shaky and excited as we got to tour the studio set for The Mentalist, one of my favourite tv shows. Whilst they were filming on location, we got to have a look around the headquarters and see Patrick’s leather couch in person. I loved that.

All up it was great to look through the studios and get a bit of an insight, but after having been on a film set myself, it would have been good to hear more about the filmmaking process rather than just bits of trivia which were interesting, but not particularly useful.

a little cameo

Author: alittlecameo