Let cARTel Cart You Away

On the patio of the Sound and Stage event with cARTel -photo by Justin Baker

This town is full of adventure: mountains to climb, oceans to swim, over-priced food trucks to chase. So here’s a new destination for the Angelino whose done it all: cARTel.  Anything cARTel is the place to be.

cARTel is a multi-media, multi-discipline production company that doesn’t just put on shows, they put on EXPERIENCES. Attending a cARTel event means every one of your senses will be engaged. You’ll be eating, drinking, laughing, crying, seeing, hearing, and touching their PRODUCTION.

El Sid (formerly an old-timey movie sound stage) set up to entertain guests at cARTel's even Sound/Stage as they dine and enjoy the live performance of an original radio play - photo by Justin Baker

I first experienced cARTel when I covered their FORTS exhibit for the LA Weekly. cARTel commissioned 10 local artists to create forts from their deepest childhood imaginings and build them, life size, at the Angel City Brewing Co. Downtown.

This teaser captures the crazy, joyful reverie that was this event:

 

On the night of the show they injected the space with a DJ,  lights, performers,  booze,  food trucks, fire pits, and painters birthing murals along the wall. You could wander the grounds for hours and there was still more to explore.

Guests explore the forts in newspaper hats. - photo by Justin Baker

More recently I attended their Sight and Sound live radio play experience at El Sid.  An original, modern radio play called Unplugged in the Amazon by Kit Steinkellner was recorded live in front of an audience while they dined on tapas, cheesecake and specialty cocktails mixed especially for the event.  

Lisa Bierman, Jack De Sena, and Shishir Kurup perform Unplugged in the Amazon at El Cid. - photo by Justin Baker

Many of the attendees as well as the staff and performers threw themselves into the experience, dressing in elegant 1920s speakeasy-esque garb.  El Sid itself used to be a soundstage for the movies of that era.  Everyone got a professional photo op before the show and free cheesecake afterward.

Our communal table at Sound/Stage at El Sid - photo by Justin Baker

If you like leaving the house and doing stuff, then cARTel should be on your radar.  Check them out at www.wearecartel.org . Maybe you’re an artist looking for some likeminded fellows to create with. Maybe you have a date you met online that you’re trying to impress with your coolness. Whatever your reason, check out whatever cARTel is up to next. You won’t be disappointed.

Free Cheesecake

Upcoming events include BROKECHELLA, the Living Room Tours, and Clown Workshops.

You can also listen to Unplugged in the Amazon, the radio play recorded at El Cid HERE.

And here’s a trailer for BROKECHELLA:

*Oooo newsy type info from my LA Weekly interview:

cARTel (formerly Ahmisa Artists) was founded in 2008 by its executive and artistic director, Negin Singh, while she was finishing her undergrad degree at UCI. “It started with my frustrations with how hard it was to create art,” Singh explained, “You know, getting a space, getting the money together, getting the rights. By the time it’s sanctioned, you don’t even want to make it anymore. We said, let’s make what we want to make and make it right now. Great art comes from when you just can’t stop”

cARTel members L-R: Rachel Walker, Clr Brks, Negin Singh, Dan Halden, Laura Cheek and Peter Berube.

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Mt. Disappointment Doesn’t Live Up to It’s Name!

View from Mt. San Gabriel, the Mountain that shamed Mt. Disappointment

IE. This hike will not disappoint you. As long as you appreciate drama!

Towering above the Los Angeles skyline, Mt. Disappointment stands proud, despite it’s name.  In 1894, early surveyors saw the peak and believed it to be the tallest point in the San Gabriel Mountains.  They made the climb only to find that they were completely wrong.

It was pretty easy for them to walk five minutes over to the highest peak, The San Gabriel Peak, only 1/2 a mile away, but they were so pissed at themselves that they took out their anger on the first mountain, labeling it for all time MT. DISAPPOINTMENT.

Great views along the way

If you would like to pay homage to the second highest peak of the San Gabriel Mountains…and then walk five minutes over to the Highest Peak. Follow our footsteps!  Below are directions and then a picture tour of our hike including a panoramic video!

DIRECTIONS: From LA, take California 2 East into La Canada Flintridge. Continue on the 2 into the Angeles National Forest. You’ll be twisting and turning for a while. Turn right at Mount Wilson road. Continue past the little campground Red Box area. Turn right on the first paved rode you get to after this (about a minute and a half). Immediately on your right you’ll see a parking area.

If it’s all parked up just park on the main road. No one’s gonna tow you. Supposedly you have to have an Adventure Pass. You can buy one at “Jay’s Shell”, the gas station on the right when you get off the freeway at La Canada. It’s only $5.00 for a car for one day, or if you’re real optimistic about your outdoorsmanship, get the $30.00 year long pass.

This is the wrong way to go. The trail is actually to your left, up the mountain.

Oh. There's the trail! Right above the parking lot.

Uphill!

Nuclear Sized Pine Cones!

Fuck are you serious? Civilization?!

Beautiful flora

SNOW!

Make your way through dramatic landscape.

awww this tree is disappointed

Picnic! This is an example of yummy, easily carried snacks!

Uphill!

Picnic at the top of the world!

Want more hikes? Check out our adventurous hike up a river to The Bridge To Nowhere!

First Class

Time Travel with American Airlines

You only get this view of the luxury TVs if you fork out the extra $2000

Through a bizarre series of events involving air miles, flight schedules, and over-protective mothers, I ended up flying FIRST CLASS to New Hampshire this Christmas.  I was a little worried that the luxury level would make me feel uncomfortable.  I’m not  a high roller. This was a fluke! And boy was I out of my element! I sure see why millionares shell out thousands for the extreme luxuries of the front of the plane.  Now you can too.

Sushi! Cupcakes! Wine Tasting!

This little piggy wants wine, this little piggy wants beer, and this little piggy wants cupcakes, sushi, and pizza. What bar could possibly please them all? 

Grocery Store Themed Wine Bar!

The Whole Foods Tapas and Wine bar!  It’s located INSIDE the enormous Arroyo Whole Foods in Pasadena.  If the somewhat cheesy furniture and locale makes you turn up your snobby hipster nose, just think of it as a ‘Grocery Store’ themed Wine Bar. How beat-the-man-at-his-own-game chic is that?

Don’t Forget Your Southern Belle*

Chic-fil-A Hollywood

Don’t worry about what to order when visiting the first Hollywood Chic-fil-A on Sunset, worry about who to bring.  This much-hyped Georgian fast food chain is known for it’s chicken sandwiches and happy cow mascot.  But honestly, I would have ho-hummed over the meal I got there, if it wasn’t for one thing: My Southern Belle.

The Coffee Commissary

com·mis·sar·y  Noun/ˈkäməˌserē/

 A store that sells food and drink to members of an organization

Sleek Sexy Snob Coffee

So what is the organization that the Coffee Commissary, located at the base of a modern apartment building in WeHo, sells to? I’d have to say:  Coffee Snobs. Of which I am one.  Or as we prefer to put it: People Interested in ‘Responsibly Good Coffee’ and Willing to Pay $4.00 for It.

Fōnuts  

The Slightly Less Guilty Guilty Pleasure

Don't Call Them Donuts

People are nuts for fōnuts. They are so nuts for fōnuts that you better get there before noon if you expect to snag a banana chocolate or chorizo cheddar one.

Get Wet

Raging Rapids and CaterKillers:

A Ten Mile Hike to the Bridge to Nowhere

If you want ROCKS. If you want SWIMMING HOLES. If you want BUNGEE JUMPING and CATERPILLERS WHO TURN LEAVES INTO LACE.  Then this hike is for you.

There are plenty of other people who explain the Bridge to Nowhere Hike (located 1 mile SE of LA) blow by blow MUCH better than I can.  I recommend Modern Hiker’s trail guide. He’s a rockstar. I promise that is the last pun for the rest of this article.

You. Me. And Everyone We Know.

Pedestals for Strangers

Discovering The Curve MOCA and Miranda July

Are you over anxious? Under loved? Over stimulated? Under funded? Over overwhelmed? Or under understood? Do you need a Burrbery think-bubble around your head?

Then Miranda July made Eleven Heavy Things for you.

DOUG and ACEA

Meat Lovers Open Vegan Cafe for All!

Elderberry on Sunset

Meet Doug. Doug is from South Jersey and loves hamburgers. He also cooks a mean vegan corn chowder.  It’s really good. It even has KALE in it, and it’s good.