Lately I've noticed the sound of world beats emanating from the corner of?Bleecker and Broadway right around lunch time. On closer inspection, it was coming from the health and environmentally conscious juice truck, of course. Oh, and a truck paired with environmental consciousness may not be a total oxymoron: the truck runs on biodegradable fuel, so their website says.

Now, expensive juices are not usually my thing, but even at $5, I couldn't deny that the combination of sweet beet juice, lemon, cucumber, red apple and lime that makes up their Hot Pink Lemonade sounds delicious. And it was. My concern of it being over-sweetened was for naught; in fact, at first sip, the beverage was much tarter and earthier than I expected. It soon won me over and not only with its truly hot pink color.

Keep a lookout on their site for their location as they move around depending on the day and time. The menu also shifts seasonally depending on what fresh ingredients are available.

See more: Drinks

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Posted on August 25, 2008

I had a few minutes to kill on Houston and before me stood the perfect diversion, a new, clean, pretty beauty shop with a friendly staff called Georgia. I assumed that there wouldn't be much in my price range to buy, but I like looking at forty dollar candles and bath oils. There were plenty of them here, but to my surprise and happiness, they also stock more affordable little luxuries, including lots of Mane and Tale products (of which we can usually only find shampoo and conditioner).

I walked away with a Mane and Tail detangler for Jim and a J R Watkins dry oil lavender body mist for myself. I usually have an aversion to perfume, so I thought it might be a nice milder scent and one that will keep my skin from getting dry.

Georgia also has a small salon in the back of the space which gives it that lovely salon smell.?And for you all with higher beauty product budgets, they have a wide selection of hair, face, and body goods as well as those curious forty dollar candles.

See more: Spend a Couple Minutes

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Posted on August 18, 2008

There was this song, randomly downloaded from Lime wire by me due to a mislabeling, and it became an obsession. In it, energetic kids scream/sing about having a boyfriend in Spanish. It is fun and fast and amazing, and in the six years it's been in my ipod (labeled simply at Belle and Sebastian) it has never failed to life my spirits.

I have never been able to put a name to it, however, until this very week. I have found out through the miracle of the internets, that it is called Toma Que Toma and the version I love is from an album called All the Children in School.

A band called Los Ninos also covers it (as do tons of other Latino bands) and they have a video that is flat out awesome. Big headed clay kids melting into the sand and blinking their eyes the way only a claymation kid can, it's a bit of surreal summer sunshine madness that I think we can all appreciate amidst our own surreal summer thunderstorm madness.

See more: Songs

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Posted on August 18, 2008

If your vision of a Beach Boy is clean cut and round faced, take a look at the dashing and daring Dennis Wilson. Take a look at him in the super BORING but highly praised car film Two Lane Blacktop. In it, he and fellow handsome man James Taylor will amaze you with their good looks and their timeless, silent hipsterdom.

Despite the bands strong associations with surfing, he was also the only member who actually surfed. He was obviously the coolest one, but he was kind of always dissed by big brother Brian who would bring in studio musicians to do his drumming on albums, who would shun the bad boy's less than innocent persona that didn't jive with the self proclaimed “bell hop” look.

A “real” Beach Boy – as Brian saw it – smiled a lot, was polite to mothers, and goes off the deep end in a sandbox in his apartment. A “real” Beach Boy did not fight, drink, go streaking in the middle of concerts, yell at lover Christine McVie, and make friends with Charles Manson. But Dennis did all of that and probably a whole lot more.

He was a rebel, and more than a little self destructive, but he was also a kind, giving California hippie at heart who took his crazy passion for life and all the beauty and ugliness that goes with it too far. He accidentally drowned in 1983.

See more: Hunks

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Posted on August 18, 2008

By far and away, one of the best experiences of my trip to Los Angeles was The La Brea Tar Pits, but in a way it was also the saddest. My camera died on me right after taking this photo of a huge mama mammoth stuck in tar yelling for her baby on the museum grounds. It's prompted me to always carry a second battery with me, which is good, but I don't have any awesome photos of the inside of the museum, which is bad.

Of course, you can find almost anything online and others have documented the amazing hybrid of curious historical and archaeological discoveries, part Museum of Natural History part Chuck E Cheese. As you probably know, I love animatronics and the museum has a couple of the greatest I have ever seen on display. One is a very slow moving mammoth you occasionally raised his head to bellow and the other is a remarkable, fascinatingly slow fighting saber tooth tiger and giant sloth.

But the animatronics aren't the only thing that made me happy. There are exhibits that show the skeleton of a saber tooth then magically the animal as it looked alive.?The same mirror technology is used in the Jekyll and Hyde exhibit at a cheapie horror wax museum in Lake George.

There is also the wall of skulls, that must be seen in person, numerous fantastic murals with life size models of prehistoric animals, a gift shop that has a La Brea shot glass, and an actual working team of archaeologists (sometimes on display) who are still working on the fossils the pits have preserved.

Outside little pockets of tar still bubble up from the ground, and in typical weirdo California style, a typical weirdo Californian – specifically a man dressed as a cowboy who sings songs will be happy to point out these spots to you.

I really love the La Brea Tar Pits and more people should put it on their Los Angeles agendas.

See more: Places to Visit

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Posted on August 18, 2008