BEST. MOTHER'S DAY. EVAR.

Mother’s Day. It’s like Christmas for Moms! At our house it is, anyway. My boys knock themselves out every year to give me everything I want on Mother’s Day. I LOVE it! It’s also one of the few days per year where I fully DEMAND everything I want, and enjoy it all, guilt-free.

This year, I got flowers; breakfast made by The Ev; a trip out to Hollywood Forever cemetery where I have not been in well over a decade; and my favorite dinner of grilled flank steak and potatoes, as expertly prepared by Mr. Siegel. For dessert: brownies! SQUEEEEEEEE! I had a wonderful, wonderful day.

Thanks so much, fellas. Ah *lurrrve* yew. xoxoxoxoox

Amoeba Music. Extremely Rad.

Today, we dragged The Boy over to Amoeba Music in Hollywood. We'd been there before, but this time I was snappin' pix to share with y'all!

This place is undoubtedly the most awesome music store, EVAR. Oh, sure. Rhino was cool, Moby Disc was cool, Licorice Pizza was somewhat cool (and had THE best name), Second Spin is STILL cool. But none of them could hold a candle to Amoeba. There's something amazing going on there... some kind of spirit that other stores just can't capture. I'm not just bein' corny! It's true!

Here's what it looks like on the outside. (I found this lovely photo on the 'net, with no credit given. Therefore I can't provide attribution. But it's a great pic!)

Here is a view of the store from the staircase that leads to the 2nd floor. This gives you a pretty good view of about 25% of the 1st floor. The place is GINORMOUS.

The second floor consists mostly of DVDs, with a smattering of video games, VHS tapes, and laserdiscs. They have the best selection of british television I've seen this side of the Thames.

LASERDISCS, people! LASERDISCS! All kinds! But seriously -- 'Black Like Me'?!?!? This is indicative of the types of obscure treasures you'll find at EVERY turn at Amoeba!

I took this snap of the Jazz Room especially for my friend Eric. Everyone else can look away. ;-)

But I think my favorite thing about Amoeba, curiously enough, are the POSTERS. The posters here are AMAZING. They cover just about every wall space, and range from stuff like Three's Company and Star Trek, to Jimi Hendrix and Guster. SO. SO. AWESOME.!!!

So, there you have it. My love letter to Amoeba. I hope they will be around for us to visit and patronize for a long, long time.

Do stop in if you should find yourself in the Hollywood/Berkeley/San Francisco areas.

Laserium!

To those of us who grew up in L.A., Laserium was a staple of the teen years. Long housed at the Griffith Observatory, it was a fun place to go on a date. Listen to cool music... watch the lasers dance... what could be better on a summer night?

I hadn't been to Laserium since I was about 17, at which time the shows were done at the Griffith Observatory. Laserium lost that long-time home when the venue closed for a major remodel several years ago. So when we heard that Laserium had a new home in Hollywood, we were eager to check it out. We took The Boy to the Beatles show on Sunday afternoon.

It was a fun & different thing to do... and VERY kid-friendly! Check it out if you can!

Read here for more background.