My Los Ángeles - Page 32

sopas ej · #**621** Posted **Nov 24, 2025, 9:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doady

Is that... poutine? I thought only people in Canada ate that.

No, it's not poutine. It's Irish Nachos... Fries topped with ground beef, cheese (they mix cheddar and jack), tomatoes, jalapeños, chipotle, onions, and parsley.

sopas ej · #**622** Posted **Dec 5, 2025, 4:53 AM**

My usual random photos I took within the last 2 weeks.

Went walking through my hometown shopping mall with my parents.

Photo by me

I think it's funny that Mrs. Fields still exists. I always thought their cookies were way too sweet, even when I was a kid.

Photo by me

Photo by me

There was a Miniso popup Zootopia 2 thingy going on. Lots of people lined up.

Photo by me

Photo by me

I treated my parents to a snack at Bafang Dumpling.

Photo by me

Lunch on another day with my partner, at a Persian restaurant. This is some other party's mess.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Dinner later. There's something relaxing about sitting outside and drinking wine.

Photo by me

Smoked salmon rillette.

Photo by me

Photo by me

We both had a half day from work the day before Thanksgiving. So we had tapas for lunch.

Photo by me

Photo by me

We came at a good time---hardly anyone there.

Photo by me

Photo by me

We noticed the paw imprints in the tile.

Photo by me

Photo by me

A 19-sixty-something Buick Riviera.

Photo by me

Thanksgiving Day, my parents' street (the street I grew up on).

Photo by me

Friday after Thanksgiving. FUCK "Black Friday," my partner and I had brunch and then went to the Norton Simon Museum.

Photo by me

Bellinis.

Photo by me

Photo by me

We saw this exhibit.

Photo by me

Photo by me

I called this "Green Zombie Christ."

Photo by me

Photo by me

2025 marks the 50th anniversary year of the Norton Simon Museum. Years ago, I used to think the exterior architecture was very 1970s. Now, I'm thinking it looks like a pretty contemporary building.

Photo by me

Photo by me

How did she eat soup?

Photo by me

Photo by me

At our go-to pub, my partner looked at a TV screen and said "Where the hell is that? It's all snowing and they're playing football!"

Photo by me

My response was "Yeah, and there are people in the stands watching actually watching the game in the snow. Get a life!"

Photo by me

And then I looked out the window and saw this. I'll admit it, I hate snow, and I've never lived where it snows. Just an hour (or less) being in it and I'm DONE with it.

Photo by me

Such a tiny car, I wish more people in the US drove cars this size.

Photo by me

It makes that Subaru look huge.

Photo by me

Speaking of cars, we went to downtown LA to go to the LA Auto Show.

Photo by me

Photo by me

The all-new Toyota BZ, but it doesn't all that new to me.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Some kind of big rice rocket?

Photo by me

Photo by me

The all-new RAV4. I'm not digging it too much.

Photo by me

Photo by me

The new Landcruiser actually looks like a Landcruiser.

Photo by me

Photo by me

This is what I really wanted to look at...

Photo by me

The coming soon, all-new Honda Prelude. But it's a hybrid. Probably still more fun to drive/handles better than an SUV.

Photo by me

Photo by me

I was hoping that this all-new Kia 4 hatchback would look like a hatchback; instead, it looks like a station wagon to me.

Photo by me

Photo by me

The Graffiti Towers. Right across the street from Crypto.com Arena, which will be a venue for some marquee events during the 2028 Summer Olympics (gymnastics, boxing prelims). I wonder if they'll try to disguise the abandoned towers somehow during the Games?

Photo by me

Photo by me

Taking the A Line to get back home.

Photo by me

There was a hockey game going on at the Crypt. There were a lot of people getting off this train wearing Canucks jerseys. I think the LA Kings won that night.

Photo by me

plinko · #**623** Posted **Dec 5, 2025, 5:53 AM**

The Norton Simon is amazing.

I took my kids to the LA Auto Show last year. The new Toyota Landcruisers are

rool:

Such fun.

sopas ej · #**624** Posted **Dec 11, 2025, 3:36 AM**

Agreed!

I'm a little tipsy right now, thought I'd post a little trifle of random pics.

Another pub, this one in our little town of South Pasadena.

Irish ciders.

Photo by me

Photo by me

My partner's smoked salmon boxty.

Photo by me

My corned beef and cabbage.

Photo by me

They also have half pints of ciders here.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**625** Posted **Dec 26, 2025, 8:42 PM**

It's been a busy month, lots going on... but that hasn't stopped me from taking a few random pics.

These were taken within the last few weeks or so.

My partner and I celebrated our 28th anniversary of being together. We treated ourselves to some Mexican food and flan at this place (which we go to fairly regularly).

Photo by me

The food was good, the flan was... OK. The texture wasn't what we usually like, and it didn't really need to have a chocolate syrup drizzle. Just pure flan, please, is all we ask for!

Photo by me

Someone's a huge Prince fan.

Photo by me

Rainy days and half-day Wednesdays never get me down... We both had a short day at our respective places of work (and he was WFH) and went out to brunch.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Silver balls... silver balls! It's X-mas time, in the city...

Photo by me

So much for our weather reporters telling us that it would be a rainy Christmas. What a crock of crap that was! Here's a shot out the back window from my parents' house on X-mas morning.

Photo by me

After some time with my parents, my partner and I ended X-mas day just decompressing and relaxing where other people who don't give a crap about X-mas spend their time...

Photo by me, taken with my crappy cell phone camera---I left my actual camera at my parents' house by accident.

sopas ej · #**626** Posted **Jan 2, 2026, 12:39 AM**

A rainy NYE. My partner and I spent it a few blocks' walk from our apartment.

Our first of quite a number of cocktails, at our usual perch by the window fronting the street. I've taken photos from this vantage point and posted them quite a number of times.

Photo by me

This person is parked in the red. And they look like they need a new fender liner.

Photo by me

Darkness was falling...

Photo by me

BAM!

Photo by me

The rain on the pavement is so pretty...

Photo by me

Photo by me

Yikes!

Photo by me

Photo by me

A Bimmer being carried on a rollback tow truck. How common.

A "classic" late 80s Bimmer, I think.

Photo by me

New Year's Day 2026, maybe an hour after the Rose Parade ended. No, we didn't watch it in person. I caught it on TV while my partner slept. While he was half asleep, I told him I was gonna go into Old Town Pasadena to take a look at the out-of-towners that were there for the Rose Bowl Game (he didn't wanna go with me). It was Indiana vs. Alabama---both teams have red colors. I caught the train into Old Town. Yup, I heard Southern and Midwestern accents. On my walk through Old Town, one woman asked me if I knew where the Cheesecake Factory is. I pointed her in the right direction.

Photo by me

Photo by me

It's pretty organized, many Metro workers directing people to the Rose Bowl shuttles from the Memorial Park Station. I assume it'll be something like this during the 2028 Olympics, where the Rose Bowl will be the venue for soccer, and the adjacent Rose Bowl Aquatics Center will be the diving venue.

Photo by me

Photo by me

A nearly empty Colorado Boulevard.

Photo by me

Photo by me

That Corolla driver and the driver in the RAV4 ahead of it wanted to make left turns from the right lane; I assume they were trying to get into the parking structure on the left. They were blocking traffic.

Photo by me

The Civic driver had to stop behind them... I thought they would start honking, but they didn't.

Photo by me

Some of the crowds smelled like booze and cigarettes.

Photo by me

Photo by me

I decided to go back home. Walked back to Memorial Park Station.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Waiting for my train. I got home around noon.

Photo by me

Yes, it rained on the Rose Parade, but people still went in person (and it stopped raining pretty much when the parade ended). ABC World News made it sound like there was flooding and that the Rose Parade was a washout. Such bullshit. After hearing that on the TV, I looked out our back door and snapped a picture of this, around 3:37 this afternoon:

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**627** Posted **Jan 2, 2026, 10:21 PM**

I was bored... my company gave us the day off today, but unfortunately my partner's company didn't give them the day off (day after New Year's Day). He's WFH right now... So this morning, I started the laundry, and finished it about an hour ago. But earlier, I ran an errand---I went to the dry cleaners to drop off a sweater... and decided to post pics.

So, tag along with me to the dry cleaners!

That's the dry cleaners I go to, on the corner. An old commercial storefront building, adjacent to other old commercial storefront buildings...

Photo by me

...but they function half and half...

Photo by me

...BTW, I don't know WHY people were lining up for this bakery; the line went further around the corner behind the building... is it THAT GOOD??...

Photo by me

...anyway, these buildings function half and half... as a strip mall! I don't know the history of this block, but my assumption is these were separately owned commercial buildings with storefronts on the sidewalk, and then later on a developer decided to buy them and combine them into one property to form a strip mall. There are adjacent older brick buildings that form part of this strip mall as well.

Photo by me

Photo by me

The low brick building houses an antiques store. Decades ago, when I was in my 20s and was working as a production assistant for a certain local news show in Hollywood, the entertainment reporter asked me if I could do an errand for him. "EJ, this is sooooo beneath you (hehe he would often say that, he was actually a very nice and funny guy), but could you return an antique chair for me? It's already in my car and the store knows I'm returning it. Could you just drop it off for me? I'll give you my car keys. The store is in Pasadena." So, I drove his Volvo station wagon to this antiques store and dropped off the chair. This was in the mid-1990s, before I moved to South Pasadena (moved here in 1998).

Photo by me

Porta Via has a parking lot entrance as well as an entrance from the street.

Photo by me

My dry cleaners, and that bakery that those people were lining up for, only has an entrance on the street side, hence my "half and half functions as a strip mall" comment.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**628** Posted **Jan 4, 2026, 4:15 AM**

Friday night...

Yeah, I paid money to be served a grilled cheese sandwich and onion rings, and beer. Sheeeit.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**629** Posted **Jan 14, 2026, 2:07 AM**

Random photos...

Photo by me

Photo by me

I feel like for several months now, I've been seeing a lot of these Cadillacs. Same color, even. I don't care for them... but to each their own.

Photo by me

Brunch!

Photo by me

Photo by me

Went and saw this film here, a theater I've known for a very long time now.

Photo by me

The film was shot in the old Academy ratio, 1.33:1, hence the dimensions of the screen.

Photo by me

Photo by me

One of our go-to German restaurants.

Photo by me

Photo by me

I guess because it's Los Angeles, the TVs were showing a football game...

Photo by me

...and the Golden Globe Awards, red carpet coverage as well as the actual awards show. Because of the Golden Globes, both Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards were blocked off, so I made sure to avoid those streets and take an alternate route from the Nuart in West LA to La Brea.

Photo by me

Photo by me

We have yet to try their donuts. So many other options in the LA area, and some pretty good ones. We may never have Voodoo...

Photo by me

LAPD.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**630** Posted **Jan 29, 2026, 5:25 AM**

Random photos, taken within the last 6 days.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**631** Posted **Feb 13, 2026, 3:52 AM**

Some random pics... taken over the past week.

The one thread on these forums where some of us mentioned PoMo architecture made me think of this building in my hometown suburb of LA, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

Photo by me

Remember that late 1990s film "She's All That"? The prom scene was filmed here, in the lobby.

• Video Link

A free international cultural festival was going on here. I've seen various concerts here over the years, some pretty big iconic performers.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Fruit beers.

Photo by me

Pasadena City College at night.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**632** Posted **Feb 13, 2026, 8:03 PM**

Went to the DMV this morning to renew my drivers license. Only took about a half hour. It really pays to make an appointment.

Photo by me

tart777 · #**633** Posted **Feb 14, 2026, 3:13 AM**

You should totally try Voodoo sometime. They're super unique & eclectic!

They've got some crazy fun, wacky doughnuts and some really yummy vegan ones.

I don't eat a ton of doughnuts myself, but I can see why Voodoo is so popular.

sopas ej · #**634** Posted **Feb 16, 2026, 6:37 PM**

We might try Voodoo eventually... not sure when, though. Again, so many options for donuts in LA, and we don't eat donuts too often, and when we do, we tend to go to donut shops closer to where we live.

As an aside, my partner and I watched the movie "Crime 101" last night. Fun movie! With films set in Los Angeles, I like seeing what locales they used. Thankfully they didn't use a shot of the Hollywood sign---so cliché. But the film was sooo LA: Freeways, beaches, graffiti, Langer's Deli, eating outside at a taco stand, murals, homeless camps... I liked that the movie didn't glamorize LA, or make LA look totally gritty; it just looked like, well, LA. I liked that they used shots of the new 6th Street Bridge more than once, too. Long Beach was also used in the film, but they didn't say they were in Long Beach.

sopas ej · #**635** Posted **Feb 18, 2026, 6:09 AM**

Speaking of food... tag along with us for some eats!

Photo by me

Lechon asado.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Pain au chocolat.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Me-ka-la.

Photo by me

With a side of pork bone soup. Check out that tasty marrow.

Photo by me

I think next time, I'll do the Cambo Egg Nog.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**636** Posted **Feb 23, 2026, 1:28 AM**

This is how I like my snow---up in the mountains, as far away from me as possible. Photo taken today.

Photo by me

The high today was 79 degrees.

sopas ej · #**637** Posted **Mar 1, 2026, 6:17 AM**

Random pics, taken Saturday, 2.28.2026.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Awards season in Los Angeles. The Shrine Auditorium, the venue for the Academy Awards in 1947-1948, 1988-1989, 1991, 1995, 1997-1998, and 2000-2001. It's also been the venue in the past for the American Music Awards, the Grammys, the Emmys... Lately, its Expo Center (not the auditorium) has been used for the SAG Awards, recently rebranded as the Actor Awards. Well, tomorrow (Sunday, 3.1.2026) is the latest Actor Awards.

Photo by me

The red carpet for awards shows used to be more out in the open, and you could see the celebrities out walking on the red carpet. For some years now, these awards shows seem to conceal the red carpet within a tent.

Photo by me

Looks like the guy is still adding the letters for the "Actor Awards."

Photo by me

Photo by me

I always thought the Shrine Auditorium looked a little mosque-like. It's 100 years old, opened in January 1926.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Speaking of mosques...

Photo by me

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens later this year.

Photo by me

sopas ej · #**638** Posted **Mar 9, 2026, 3:44 AM**

A few randoms, taken today, 3.8.2026.

Photo by me

Photo by me

THANKS, Dumb Donald!!

It's a good thing I don't drive a gas guzzler.

Photo by me

citywatch · #**639** Posted **Mar 9, 2026, 9:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej

The Shrine Auditorium
I always thought the Shrine Auditorium looked a little mosque-like. It's 100 years old, opened in January 1926.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens later this year.

• Video Link

I recall the shrine before it got a long overdue paint job....it once had red lines highlighting the base of its 2 domes & a plain white-pink color elsewhere....& the area in front of it was treeless & still came with wood phone poles...

gettyimages.com

I recall when University village was still a tired 1970s shopping center....the area to the west of the coliseum was still a large parking lot...the area all around USC not that long ago really wasn't ready for its close up, Mr. DeMille.

• Video Link

istock.com

mrnyc · #**640** Posted **Mar 9, 2026, 10:39 PM**

i parked in front of the shrine one morning and walked around. it was a lot of fun there is a lot to see. the felix sign, the addams family house site, doheny mansion, usc, st vincent, stadium, etc. recommended for urbanistas.