How 'bout a little fire, Scarecrow?

Last night April and I walked down to City Hall to watch one of my all time favorite movies; The Wizard of Oz.  The Wizard of Oz was filmed at Sony Studios (formerly MGM) just down the street from our apartment.  To celebrate the 70th anniversary of its release the city put on a free screening of the film as part of the Made in Culver City series.

Judy Garland's son was there, which was cool enough.  But even better, Jerry Maren, one of the original Munchkins showed up.  He was the leader of the Lollypop Guild and was the one who gave the giant lollypop to Dorothy.   

Maren talked about what it was like shooting the movie in Culver City back in the 1930's and shared some stories about hanging out in the Culver Hotel with all the other Munchkins. It was the largest gathering of little people in history and their hijinks there are the stuff of legend.

But it gets even better.  Maren actually performed the Lollypop Guild song and dance on the stage for us.  I'm so glad I brought my camera.

It's really fun to have all this stuff right here in Culver City.

There's no place like home.

Back to the Future

I ran 4 miles this morning down Culver Blvd on a nice little dirt path. I run this path 3-4 times a week, same exact route, same exact run. Only this morning, I felt like I had gone back in time! All of the cars driving down the street were classic vehicles from the 1950s or 1960s. It was part of a classic car show/1950s celebration in Culver City today. Makes me wish I hadn't left the 1965 Barracuda in my parents' garage (but then again, the drive down from Utah would be torture with only AM radio and no A/C).   

                                                                  

Mom and Dad Visit

April and I were glad to have my parents come down and visit us for the weekend. For those who don't know, I will be graduating from law school on My 8th. In an unfortunate cosmic alignment my brother Mike will be graduating from the U's management school on the exact same day. This puts my parents in the very awkward circumstance of being in two places at once. So the have decided to divide and-uh-split the baby. My mom will come down here and my dad will stay up in SLC. In the meantime, they decided that they would both come down now, in part, to take some "fake" graduation photos.

While they were here we also did lots of other fun things like bike riding through Marina Del Rey, with Uncle Dave and Aunt Mary Lou, and touring Venice beach.

(here's the guy that jumps barefooted onto broken glass about to do his thing)

(and the two-headed turtle)

We also walked through downtown Culver City.

(From left to right: Harry Culver (seated), with Nike (also seated), Mom, Lillian Culver holding daughter Patricia, April (seated), Kiki on ground, and Dad)


And toured the temple grounds.

And of course we hit up a few of our classic culinary haunts including: Pinks,

Diddy Riese, Las Fuentes, and Tahoe Galbi (our favorite Korean barbeque in K-Town). If you've never had Korean BBQ you are missing out. they give you a variety of meats (all you can eat and most of them in some form of sweet marinade) that you cook up to your own liking on a grill in the middle of your table. You also get a smorgasbord of side dishes.
I think my dad enjoyed it the most. He even developed quite a liking for Kimchi.

Not long after I dropped my parents off at LAX on Monday I had my second real trial. I represented another MTA bus driver who was refereed to us by my last client. It went about as well as we could expect, and maybe even a little better. We should hear a verdict in a few weeks or so.

Saint Augustine's Carnival '08

About a week after we moved into our current apartment last year we were walking down the street when we saw the lights of a Ferris wheel above us. It was a carnival right around our corner. Yesterday we went back for the annual St. Augustine Catholic Church Carnival to ride the rickety Ferris wheel and get sick on the rocking pirate ship (which wasn’t there this time). We did get a good ride on the Ferris wheel and enjoyed some good Filipino and Mexican food. We paid for these with tickets called Augies a currency nicknamed after the inventor of original sin and the man who brought Platonic Rationalism to Christianity.

April won a stuffed walrus while a Christian rock band played in the background. We’ll be back next year. I’ll need a break from Bar Review.

Below is a view of the carnival and Culver City from above. Maybe it’s not Augustine’s’ City of God, but it’s home.

Youtube of the Week: Stairway backwards. I’m sure this is just the power of suggestion because real backmasking is always more clear in reverse but this is fun nonetheless.