Hot Spots Archive

Here comes yet another secret tip far from L.A.’s old tourist paths:
We all know Tim Burton as a producer, screenwriter and director of high grossing films that have also attained cult status, which is an art unto itself. He is known for movies such as Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Sweeney Todd, and just recently his remarkably implemented remake of Alice in Wonderland.

Not everyone knows that More…!

You can be sure that when I suggest really good restaurants in L.A., they often include decent prices. Of course, L.A. has restaurants where you pay from 200 Dollars onwards, but we want to remain down-to-earth and suggest places that offer a great price and great quality for “people like you and me.” Expensive restaurants often deliver a great experience (and we will eventually review these as well), however, it is definitely not necessary to spend a crazy amount on really tasty food in LA.

“Decent prices” mean that you don’t spend more than 50 to 60 Dollars for a menu for two people. One example is the restaurant “Bulan Thai.” Bulan offers More…!

Sometimes, when you try a new restaurant, you experience a revelation. Only people who are on a similar wavelength will know that eating can be a joyful, almost ecstatic experience, where you float in a condition that is described by the great spiritual teachers of our time as “Living in the Now.”
Forget meditation and yoga twists. Go for dinner!

The restaurant that inspires me to write these words carries the name Komasa, and is a simple, unpretentious sushi restaurant in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles. When we arrived on a Tuesday evening, the place was More…!

Street art is being acknowledged by the big dudes of contemporary art culture. This statement is now proven by the latest exhibition of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, the first exhibit of its kind, where graffiti and street art are officially being featured in the holy realm of a respected museum. Latest since Banksy’s Oscar-nominated movie “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” L.A. street art has become fashionable. That this would only be a matter of time was pretty obvious; Los Angeles is, after all, besides New York one of the birth places of graffiti.

Downtown Los Angeles

However, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, the More…!

The downtown LA arts district is an area–and I can’t help drawing the comparison–that reminds me of the atmosphere in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg, about 10 years after the wall came down. It is starting to get chic and established, but you still have that innovative, exciting vibe, with art galleries on every corner and exotic, hip shops and restaurants. The vibe is very industrial, with lots of lofts and concrete and metal. It is an area that has nothing to do with the famous, elegant vibe of Beverly Hills.

Right in the middle of the arts district, there is a place where the sausage-eater can become a connoisseur:

Wurstküche offers 20 different kinds of sausage, among them such exotic ones as Rattlesnake and Rabbit, Alligator and Pork–but also the very simple, down-to-earth Bratwurst. One can’t stand on one leg, as we say in German, so a sausage must be accompanied by a cold beer. And you will find 44 kinds of beer, exclusively imported from Germany and Belgium.

Joseph Pitruzzelli and his cousin opened their restaurant about 2 years ago. Meanwhile, it has become an In-Spot for people of all kinds: business people from the nearby Civic Center (the government center of the city), kids from Little Tokyo around the corner, young and elderly couples.

Of course, we are in L.A., which means, we want to know if there are celebrities who frequent this place. Yes, says Joseph, but points out that everybody is the same at his place, nobody gets special treatment, and if a celebrity comes, they simply just want to eat in peace and enjoy some quality time.
Sure, no problem. Us, too.

Finally, I squeezed out of him that just a few days earlier, Arnold Schwarzenegger was there. He just came from a meeting and was surrounded by his body guards. And what did Mr. Governator eat? Well, if one can draw conclusions from what someone eats to his character, Schwarzenegger must have a preference for the true and tested; in this case, Bratwurst.

Wurstküche am Abend

800 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013, ph: (213) 687-4444

Alice im Wunderland

True Grit

There is one thing that gets easily overlooked in the commotion about the Hollywood stars: Oscars are also given to

costume designers, in the category “Best Costume Design”. The hopefuls for this year’s Oscars are “Alice in Wonderland,” “True Grit,” “The King’s Speech,” “I Am Love” and “Tempest”.

The “Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Museum” in downtown Los Angeles currently presents a selection of pieces from these nominated films. Besides this, the visitor can admire costumes from films that were not nominated, but still showcase interesting fashion, such as “Burlesque” and “Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time”.

Here is a little insider knowledge fresh out of the world of costume design:

The King's Speech

In “The King’s Speech,” they used original clothing from the Thirties. For “True Grit,” the costume designers created clothes according to the style of the last century, which then underwent special procedures to make it look “old”.

Before they even started, they did elaborate research in order to find out exactly what kind of clothes the people in Arkansas used to wear back in 1860.

So, in some films, there is way more to discover and to enjoy than a (hopefully) well-written plot.

The 2011 exhibition “19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design” is open until April 30th. There is no cover charge.

Fashion Institute of Design: "Burlesque"

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Museum and Gallery, 919 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90015

“Showing off”, having an attitude, is part of the spirit of L.A.

Modesty? Understatement? You can practice it, but nobody gives a damn if you do or not. For sure you won’t get any Brownie points.

L.A. is “showy” in both a positive and negative sense — and it makes you addicted. I can’t imagine living in any other city any more.

Since I getting to know this city more and more from the inside out, I can give you a couple of tips about the really More…!