by Maharlika Sage
The gloom traveled into July, creating endless rants from summer hopefuls looking to get some warmth and sunshine. Alas, Tuesday (last) the sun peaked out, the clouds moved on, and the delicious summer air was set in motion. The buzzing of activity began floating in my mind. I’ve decided to spend my summer blogging about what I do and see on a weekly basis and highlighting some special moments. It’s always hard for a writer to find their voice; there is a sea of different kinds of fish wiggling their tails, and I am just one tiny fish trying to swim up stream. Sometimes the current is so strong that my voice is not heard and there are fish that are bigger and meatier and have the weight to push further up stream.
I’d like to say that the beginning of my week starts by accumulating thoughts of what I did over the past few days. I believe it’s important to think about what affected you personally and socially. I am far more organized and productive when I know what I have already done. I am not a creature of habit and though I like planning and organizing my endeavors, I am hardly a person who does the same thing week after week. At the start of the week, I poke around for recommendations in the trades, suggestions on the blog spheres, and events on facebook. I tally up my week of must do’s and possible innuendos…I love a good week of activity and one that includes a lot of outdoor fun. These past four days were wonderful with the summer heat rolling in, making it one of the first truly hot summer weekends since the beginning of summer. We’ve all been waiting for this moment and it had finally arrived.
Here’s a recap of my week— some events are happening all summer long, so if you feel inclined and inspired by this blog post, check it out!
A thirst for Thursday:
Living on Venice island can create an enclave of good times during the summer. The activity sparks Thursday evenings each week with the twilight music series held at the pier. This series began during the “save the pier” years and has continued to whip up local and well known artist around the world.
We pack our picnic gear (blanket, wine, olives, cheese... check!), and ride over on the bike path, a sea of lights appear from far. I must say riding there has always been my favorite part, and especially on the beach path during sundown is quite magnificent!! Its not just for pier nights, it’s something ever Westsider should do... I like to ride early mornings and around sunset during the week.
As a local, I stay away from the local bike path during the weekENDS... for good reason :)
ps. the photo taken above was the exact time Ben Lee performed!! Big love to Ben.
Feel Good Friday:
There is always something to feel good about when it’s Friday. I sure feel good when I hear about a good deal. I am always on the hunt for new openings and store sales. I took a tip (thanks Serena!), and went down to Weho for the COCO DE MER summer sale. Coco de Mer is known as the “classiest” naughty sex apparel store. A peep show is set up in the dressing room for couples to have a little fun while trying on their lingerie. They had $10, $20, $30 bins of sexy lingerie pieces that are normally in the hundreds... I got some fashionably sexy bras for twenty bucks!! (sadly-the sale was for only this past weekend so hopefully some of you went!).
After a trip to Coco— I decided to hit up Magnolia Bakery , the cupcake shop made famous by a Sex and the City episode and the darling of the East coast. It has gotten so many reviews since its opening that I wanted first hand experience on what a truly fabulous cupcake is...or so they say. There have been many sweet bakeries that have opened in LA and some are more notable than others. My favs are still Sweet Lady Jane and Milk ... I have yet to experience a truly great bakery on the Westside, and with all the tapas and wine bars crowding the streets of Abbott Kinney we are definitely in need of a good one!! Magnolia opened on the 17th!! What’s your cupcake opinion?
Sweet Saturdays
I love lazy Saturday mornings were I can sleep in a little, read a book, magazine or digital news in bed with my sweetie. My Saturday’s are always random when there are no plans for a getaway. I did however attend a sweet baby shower around the corner from my house, which was very lovely and traditional. I’ve always love the oohing and ahhing that those adorable one-sies inspire, and the sweet treats that cover the table made for a great afternoon with the ladies and mama-to-be.
Later in the evening, I was also invited to a “Steam Punk Barbarella” style party, in South LA.
As we were driving there, I found myself saying “Where are we?” and for a native... these words hardly ever come out of my mouth. I’ve been there and done that many times over, but we wound up on Slauson and Southwest drive in South LA. I couldn’t quite get a sense of the area, except that it felt like I was warped back to 1982, and the houses surrounding the area seemed like little boxes near the train tracks. We entered a warehouse loft style, were we were greeted by two big bouncers and a welcoming committee dressed in the style highly noted as Steam Punk fashion ala Burn man esquire. I have to say that I truly love these types of loft, I’ve been to a few amazing converted warehouse artist lofts in the industrial district downtown, but this was no where near downtown. Every nook of this loft emanated a bohemian personality enriched with lustful colors, comfy pillows, and a boisterous charm was felt throughout. The party was well stocked in every sense of the word. The birthday party host also steamed up and laid out a long table of deliciously seasoned Crawfish with baby potatoes and carrots. It was almost never-ending as they had boiled pounds of this stuff every hour in order to please each guest to the max. It was a great party and another fun filled evening.
Golden Sundays
Sundays feel like Gold, better known to most as the day of rest or Sunday fun day. I like a little of both;
I like being restful and engaging in activities. For me that's Golden.
We started off mid-day on our bikes, along the way grabbing sandwiches & pop at our local stop Bellisimo’s (S. Venice and Pacific), where they make a delicious Capreses and have all sorts of picnic items, then headed for a spot on the beach near the Washington pier away from the Venice tourist madness. It was quite nice to be on the beach, chilling out, reading and getting some sun. Neither my husband nor I are sun-bathers, but it was perfect, because the sun was not too hot. We swam in the ocean, which felt great! (Yay for summer!), and stayed long enough to get a little blush on our cheeks. In the evening we headed east to the Grove and started our evening at the Whisper Lounge …it was a great night to be sitting on the patio because the temperature was perfect. We had summer cocktails called Zingers (made with ginger brew and rye whiskey), and Spiked Watermelon. We also ordered their mouthwatering Sunday night BBQ special. Now if you are a no fuss vegetarian, one that still eats dairy and wheat, and can deal with sharing food with a carnivore, than this meal is great for sharing!! It’s a lot of food for $23.00. While my husband ate all the meat items, there was so much delicious southern style beans, cornbread, and potato salad for me to pick at. I wasn’t too hungry and just wanted some bites here and there, and found myself eating more than my share, mainly because the southern style taste was incredibly scrumptious!! We were licking our fingers even after we cleaned the plate, and it also came with red velvet cake bites. Can you say delicious!!?! I highly recommend ordering this if you are out that way. The night ended with seeing the highly anticipated and visual stunning Inception directed by Christopher Nolan. Though the continuity in this cerebral flick was a little tough for me to wrap my brain around, it was indeed a very engaging and visually cool movie.
tune in next week for my weekly roundup!
Yes! Daily blogging about summer occurrences...what a delight!
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