Forty-seven years ago, I lived in Monterey Park, California, after moving here from Long Beach, California, and prior to that Buffalo, New York. Repetto was where I attended the 2nd grade; if I did any of the first grade here, I have no recollection. At the end of our school year back in 1971, we moved to flat land in West Covina because the Sylmar earthquake in February of that year freaked out my parents, who thought our house would slide down the hillside we were living on.
Pork kidneys are what brought us through Monterey Park this morning. On my quest to find new experiences for this short getaway, I found a popular breakfast place that specializes in kidneys on everything. We are at Kim Kee Noodle Cafe on Garvey Avenue, and this is my dish: egg noodles with shrimp and kidney. Maybe you wonder if I particularly enjoy pig kidneys? Well, the truth is I’ve never tried them, so why not go large and order them up for breakfast?
Caroline also had some of my dish, and I had some of hers. She opted for congee with century egg. Let me tell you about this specialty that was a first for the two of us: century eggs, also known as preserved eggs, are an interesting food item from Asia that traditionally was made by placing duck or chicken eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months until they are properly transformed. The egg’s white has a gelatinous translucent appearance and texture while the yolk was a greenish grey with a pungent flavor. The congee itself was rather bland to me, but with a splash of soy to add a bit of salt, it pepped right up. Served alongside the congee was fried bread. Sadly, we didn’t realize that bread was supposed to go into the congee, so we just took a few bites and left it at that. At least now we know better for future rice porridge breakfasts!
When I went to pay our bill (the Noodle Cafe is cash only, which required me to run down the block to the nearest ATM), the cashier, seeing my camera, insisted I take her picture, which, of course, I had to oblige. Our breakfast was an experience to remember, and lucky for us, I’ve mostly gotten over my sense of being squeamish about things I’ve not tried. Rarely a month goes by recently that Caroline doesn’t bring up the idea of eating insects; I can see them in our future and ultimately on our plates.
Out of the San Gabriel Valley and into downtown Los Angeles.
We are at the Grand Central Market for a coffee, some blogging, and waiting to meet up with a couple of people.
Those couple of people are Scott Jaeger and his friend Tirdad. These two owned their own music labels years ago when they first met; Tirdad now lives near Washington D.C. and came in to meet with Scott and attend last night’s concert, and Scott, if I hadn’t mentioned it, is from the Seattle area. Funny that we keep meeting in loud, busy locations that make communication a little bit strained. Hopefully, one day, we’ll be able to sit down in a quiet setting and talk for a minute, though if our next get-together is at Superbooth in Berlin, the chance of finding a noise-free environment is practically nil. Come to think about it, maybe meeting in noise is more poetically appropriate.
Scott brought this thing for me to test its firmware. This “thing” is the beta version of the updated Hertz Donut Eurorack module, which has the specific function of being an oscillator. Nothing from Scott can be defined with a simple description, as his work is specialized in complexity and a brand of being obtuse, allowing for the discovery of what is not apparent. The Hertz Donut was originally inspired by the Buchla 259 Complex Waveform Generator and the subsequent Buchla 259e Twisted Waveform Generator.
After our return to Phoenix, I’ll be able to plug this in and power it up. My guess from previous work with his modules is that I’ll need half a day to begin feeling like I’m starting to understand some basics and then a few more days to realize I knew nothing. On my way, I will have the great fortune of being the first to discover just a fraction of what this voice will have to offer and hopefully help him smooth some of the rough spots and ensure there are no bugs that would hamper people playing with the Hertz Donut to its potential.
With no time to spare, we had to leave downtown L.A. and head over to Hollywood, where, for the first time in nearly a year, we were meeting up with Rotem and Itay Braverman. They moved out of Phoenix almost exactly a year ago and decided it was a great idea to live in the nutty swarm of constant motion and perpetual insanity that is Los Angeles. Due to this being a nearly last-minute trip to California, we were reluctant to impose on them, so prior to our departure Friday, we didn’t reach out, but then, late yesterday, while driving through Hollywood, I decided to call Itay.
His enthusiasm in hearing we were in his neighborhood was immediately apparent; he wanted us to come right over, but we were on our way downtown to the concert, so we agreed to meet today around noon. It was terrific seeing these two Arizona/Israel ex-pats and hearing about their adventure in the madness they’ve found here. After a thousand miles an hour tromp into all things cultural, technological, social, and bureaucratic, our brief visit was all too soon over as we had another scheduled event on our calendar. We said our goodbyes, exchanged hugs and were happy to hear their great enthusiasm for having us stay with them on our next visit.
Down the freeway and back to the east, we’re in the City of Industry, where we already had tickets for the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo. This unique event is America’s only touring black rodeo and is sometimes called “The Greatest Show on Dirt.”
The rodeo celebrates America’s black cowboys and cowgirls, and once again, Caroline and I find ourselves the recipients of the greatest of fortunes in being in attendance for yet another incredible cultural event. The lady on the right was part of the Grand Entry at the beginning of the festivities and shared with us some interesting details about what was going on in the arena.
The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo got underway back in 1984 and was created by Lu Vason after attending a rodeo where there wasn’t one black cowboy, though America has a long history of black cowboys. While everyone knew Will Rogers, not many knew of the cowboy Bill Pickett. So it was that the guy who is credited with creating the Pointer Sisters went on to move from entertainment to education by bringing the history of this part of America to the masses.
Bill Pickett was born in Texas back in 1870. He’s the originator of a move called “Bulldogging,” where the cowboy leaps off his horse onto the back of a steer and drags it to a stop. Today, that move is called Steer Wrestling, but it was Bill Pickett who first executed that daring feat. Today black cowboys and cowgirls are alive and well, coming from all corners of America, including Compton here in the Los Angeles area to Florida on the east coast.
Should you find yourself in Oakland or Los Angeles, California, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Georgia, Memphis, Tennessee, or Denver, Colorado, during one of the events, do yourself and your family a favor and go.
There is one not-so-positive note about this weekend I’d like to share, though it is a bit of a downer to me. There were very few white people at today’s event. Caroline and I did not attend because of any particular connectivity to black people but because this was something uncommon that we’d likely not see in Phoenix, Arizona. Los Angeles is an intensely diverse city, and it simply feels like there should be enough cross-cultural curiosity that would have drawn in a more diverse crowd. As with our visits to Cafe Gunul 2 on Friday night, Bon Juk on Saturday morning, and Kim Kee Noodle Cafe this morning, we were again the only white people.
We’ve seen this before at the San Pedro Fish Market, where the majority of visitors are Hispanic, or Mix Bowl in Pomona, where during our first dozen visits, we were the only whites, and then Ten Ren’s Tea Time in Rowland Heights is super popular with Japanese customers but seemingly not with Anglo-Saxons. While these businesses and events are allowed to operate freely, and they themselves are inclusive, the community at large sometimes feels segregated.
While this is an extraordinarily beautiful day here in L.A., this is not the first time we’ve seen the mountains this clearly. I’m pointing this out because this was a rare view when I was growing up right out in the middle of this view. Straight ahead and slightly to the left is the city of West Covina, where I spent the majority of my childhood.
Nostalgia has pulled me back to West Covina on more than a few occasions, and today, our stop was somewhere I’d never brought Caroline before: the West Covina Police Station. Back when I was 13 or 14, I entertained the idea of being a police officer and so I looked at joining the Explorers Program where I could learn about what it was like to have such a career. Puberty and punk rock intruded into that naive and innocent young boy’s life, and my opportunity to wear a blue uniform was never realized. Across from the station was city hall, the library I’d visited a thousand times, and the city court where I’d go sit in on cases as people explained their drunk driving, speeding, petty crimes, and occasionally an assault or other serious crime. We were just spending some extra time out here until our next date.
As we drove away from Hollywood earlier, we were not more than three minutes down the road when it occurred to me that we didn’t have fixed plans for after the rodeo, so I called Itay and Rotem back and asked if they’d join us for dinner, and they accepted. Prior to leaving Phoenix, I was scouring the web looking for late-night eats for our arrival Friday night. One of the places that showed up on a number of lists was this Los Angeles icon that’s been open 24/7 since 1921 called Pacific Dining Car. The place is made up like a train’s luxury dining car from back in the day. Seemed like a relatively safe bet, and in addition to feeding us, we’d earn bragging rights to having eaten at this “famous” stop in L.A.
Dinner itself was okay, nothing to really celebrate, but cheesily adequate. My guess is that this place will be lucky to celebrate its 100th birthday as not only is it rather expensive, but its style of feeding people seems to have already disappeared from many other locales. Our desserts were amazing, but at $14 each, they better be. With that said, should you be in L.A. I could probably recommend Pacific Dining Car for that 3:00 in the morning craving for filet mignon and eggs instead of Jack-in-the-Box, but for a regular dinner, not so much.