Todd Schorr- American Surreal Art

For those of you in the San Francisco bay area or better, San Jose, California....One of O's and my favorite pop illustrative artist, Todd Schorr, has a solo retrospective exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art. Todd has managed to get many of the owners of his paintings to lend to the show. So, it is pretty comprehensive. Arrested Motion, an art blog, shows photos of the opening reception.

Todd Schorr - American Surreal

San Jose Museum of Art

110 S Market Street

San Jose, CA 95113

Tel: (408) 271 6840

Photo of painting by Todd Schorr

Photo of American Surreal Exhibit by Scott Beale at Laughing Squid

BBQ Unlimited- Chinese Restaurant in North Hollywood

Here is one of my favorite 'stammtisch' restaurants. For those of you who don't know what 'stammtisch' means, please click on the word and it will take you to Wikipedia.

It's hard to find a 'real' Chinese restaurant in non-asian communities. We all know that there are many 'chop suey' type restaurants that cater to the non-authentic demanding palettes. But we did find one within decent driving distance. Actually, friends of ours, introduced us to it.

Nestled in the corner of a strip shopping mall on Sherman Way, a street lined with strip and corner shopping malls, BBQ Unlimited is an unassuming dining paradise. Its neighbor is the Bangluck Supermarket and a very popopular Thai restaurant which we'll have to try out next time we crave Thai food.

This family-style Cantonese restaurant specializes in Chinese BBQ chicken, duck and pork. You can order a whole suckling pig for large parties and catering.

The food is excellent and best of all, authentic. Their shrimp with scrambled eggs (see picture) is delicious. So are the white fish with scrambled egg white topped with an egg yolk dish, their glaze shrimp with walnuts, tofu with stuffed shrimp, sauteed Chinese greens or broccoli, hot and sour soup (picture), salty chicken with special ginger sauce (picture), all their noodle dishes and the list keeps going.

We love the basic decor. It reminds us of typical Hong Kong neighborhod eateries. Except this one is in North Hollywood.

BBQ Unlimited #1

12980 Sherman Way

North Hollywood, CA 91605

Tel: (818) 765 7725

BTW, we love Ms. Chang, one of the waitresses, who always gives us a hug. All of the restaurant employees are very attentive and offer all manner of advice when you want it.

Victor Castillo-Illustrative Pop Art

There are over 400,000 artists living and working in L.A., so naturally, galleries are in abundance. O and I are on the mailing list of Merry Karnowsky Gallery, the best of the illustrative art galleries. We went to the opening of the exhibit titled: GAMELAND, by Chilean born artist, Victor Castillo. His beautifully executed work is pop with social, religious and political undertones/overtones. We were able to meet Victor and found him engaging and humorous. His art has a great deal of dark humor- something we love. It's definitely worth multiple visits while the exhibit is still up.

Merry Karnowsky Gallery

170 South La Brea

Los Angeles, CA 90038

(323) 933 4408

July 11-August 8

Photo by Merry Karnowsky Gallery

Deserted Chinatown Night

O and I were feeling restless one night and decided to explore a little night life. To spice it up, O challenged me to a competition between his Voigtlaender Nokton 50mm lens verses my Leica Noctilux 50mm. We were looking for some nightlife action in Chinatown and what we found was a deserted plaza.

We had hoped that with the selling of property and the influx of new non-Chinese tenants who are turning the spaces into galleries, that Chinatown would be revived at night. Looks like it will take some time to get it as busy as Little Tokyo.

We love this place.

FYI- the Noctilux produces a softer image than the Nokton. Both have their own merits.

Midnight Plunge

Finally, summer arrived. It was hot enough for a midnight swim in the old plunge. So O went for it.

2009 Presidential Inaugural Pics from TV CNN

When I look at these photos, I get a smile from ear to ear. It was a pretty wonderful day. It's fitting to look at as we move into Independence Day this Saturday.

How the Democratic Party nearly destroyed themselves and the planet

I can't help but agree with Paul Krugman's OP-Ed in the New York Times.

How can democrats vote against the Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill which, no thanks to them, got passed by the skin of its teeth? Shame on those who did not support the bill. I thought that for once- since I've been voting in the mid- 1980's, that the democrats would finally dispel their image of a non-united bunch of selfish intellectuals, run by a bunch of corporate lobbyists. But nooooo. The nay voters had to prove that the democratic party is indeed what its cliche claims.

The worst part is it shows that the hypocritical caring party does not care because it is indeed hypocritical. How can those people claim they are democrats? They should join the GOP instead!

Photo by Fred R. Conrad/NY Times