I’m not a planner. I have other good qualities, don’t get me wrong. I just have a hard time pulling the trigger when it comes to, say, buying a plane ticket - or buying any ticket, really, as evidenced last week when I bought a ticket to Rilo Kiley two days before the show despite having highlighted the concert on this here newsletter weeks before! (Though if I’m playing devil’s advocate, the $35 resale price for terrace seats was not a bad deal.)
Honestly, it kind of shocks me when I see people planning in advance for things like… tickets to a movie?! The news of Christopher Nolan nearly selling out tickets to The Odyssey ONE YEAR in advance broke my brain. I hardly know what I’m doing next week let alone when I’ll be ordering a diet coke and popcorn at the Vista one year from now.
But it got me thinking (shout out SJP!)...maybe there is something to this advance cultural planning. Take the goings-ons in our city for example. I was psyched to see that Patti Smith is reprising her album Horses with a live performance at the LA Phil for its 50th anniversary on November 15th - only to find out one second later that it’s been sold out for 6 weeks. Who are these Type-A culture vultures and how do I become one? What would I plan my life around one year in advance? What would you? People just did it the world over for Oasis, sometimes crossing continents. World Cup tickets are on sale now (via a controversial lottery system, the grapevine tells me). Olympics 2028? If we don’t all rent our homes and scram. After we missed the 2023 solar eclipse, my fellow Loose Lander Betsy and I promised to remedy our regret by committing to Iceland in 2026. And here we seemingly are (next August 12th, save the date!)... with no plane tickets purchased.
If there’s any hope for me, astrotourism might be my gateway drug. Earlier this summer I read about the very first Leonid meteor shower which happened in 1833 to the delight and terror of those who saw it. People thought the stars were falling. I was enamored and marked my calendar for November 17th - months from that moment - when the next shower hits (though the big show only happens every 33 years, I’m ready for you 2032). What a pleasant surprise to scroll through my doctors and dentist appointments only to find that note to my future self. I think I’ll make good on it and go to a Dark Sky place, of which we have so many in driving distance (movie theaters don’t count, Nolan!). If stars can fall, maybe I too can change my ways.
-Meredith Rogers
PS. We loved getting to learn a bit more about you - the LL community - through last month's survey. Thanks to all who participated, and a special shout-out to our Vidiots winner Madi! We also decided to share a bit of what we heard from y'all, just because it was just too damn good to keep to ourselves. :)
Cultural Events
Clockwise from L to R: Hollywood Food Coalition, Corita Day, Neko Case, Detail of work by artist Griselda Rosas whose is featured in 2025 California Biennial: Desperate, Scared, But Social on view currently at OCMA; Yang's Kitchen, Raising Arizona.
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November 3 - WIP with Kirsten Schnittker and Shoji Yamasaki (Wende Museum) I recently got a tour of the new-ish Glorya Kaufman Community Center at the Wende Museum. It’s an amazing space where community partners can submit ideas for programming and - if your event is free and open to the public - host sans venue fee. They also offer a slate of curated programming including this monthly artist-run, work-in-progress dance series co-curated by the Wende’s Community Manager Belize Wilheim. I am always looking to see more dance in LA and can’t wait to snuggle into the purple seats under exposed beams in their state-of-the-art-theater. (MR)
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November 7 - AUTOBODY autobody Lamp Show (Wilshire Blvd) My friend Eli - whose summer show I wrote about in June - is back again, having a ball and challenging the notions of what it means to be a gallery. Eli and his art partner, Joseph, host 4 shows a year. They don’t pull normal gallery hours. They pop up in U-hauls. They have a community, not a “roster.” For their fall show, the renegade duo is putting on a Lamp Show in a vacant office building a neighborhood over from their actual brick and mortar. I love it! The show looks dynamite and promises to be a scene. I’m going to go early doors, which is my new favorite “cool girl” party move. (MR)
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Anytime - Yang’s Kitchen (Alhambra) Yangs’ Kitchen is certainly not underappreciated in the LA dining scene, but as someone who only recently ate there, I have to share it here in case you’ve never been or it’s been a while. My dinner at Yang’s Kitchen was the best meal out I’ve had this year, full stop. Everything we ordered at our recent visit was moan-inducingly delicious. The secret potatoes doused with cumin butter and chile crisp are obscene (in a good way). The Dan Dan noodles take this classic dish in an Italian direction, and the Hainan fish is my idea of comfort on a plate. I would order everything again with glee, except I know from my ogling of fellow diners orders, there are so many more dishes to try. Run, don't walk before I simply list every dish on this menu. (BK)
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November 8 - Sense/Make: Fieldwork - Composing Soil (Altadena Remediation Site) Co-presented by Fathomers, a creative research institute and the organization that I now call home. Sense/Make explores the intersection of ecological remediation and creative practice. For this upcoming workshop, we’ll be getting our hands dirty in the field at a post-burn remediation site in Altadena. Participants will learn how to take samples with Dr. Danielle Stevenson and practice creative storytelling using tools like field sketching and audio recordings, guided by the Trade School team. We will warm up afterwards with soup by all-around great human and Altadena resident Nicky Sparkles of Sparkles Soup. (MR)
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November 10 - Neko Case (The Bellwether) Neko Case’s voice has always lit up the sky for me. Her eighth (this one self-produced!) album literally does the same, harkening to the Pacific Northwest skies she grew up under. Perhaps that’s why I love it. And also because, in the words of Pitchfork, “Neon Grey Midnight Green is drunk on the magic of love and embracing the power of aging into yourself with each decade.” It’s wonderful to hear her melodies and her words in my ears again. I started reading her newsletter Entering the Lungafter the fires devastated our city (she lost her house to a fire in 2018). Her written voice feels like a friend and her singing voice feels like an oracle - now that’s talent. (MR)
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November 15 - Raising Arizona (Braindead Studios) The Blank Check podcast has been doing “Pod Country for Old Cast” — a mini-series on the Coen Brothers — since July, and it’s brought in a lot of heavy hitters: Ari Aster, Zach Cregger, Seth Rogen, Leslye Headland, and Marc Maron. People really want to celebrate the Coens, as it turns out. And although all the episodes are revelatory, my personal favorite (with apologies to Chris Weitzk) was the John Hodgman episode on Raising Arizona. I didn’t see it in theaters, so it was a great reminder that before these guys were the preeminent craft bros, they were also just really exciting young filmmakers, doing all kinds of extraordinary, unexpected stuff. With or without the pod for company, it’s a great time. (DH)
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November 16 - Weekend Studio: Embroidery and Watercolor (OCMA) Honestly this might be too far afield location-wise for most, but just the combination of embroidery and watercolor has my senses alive in a way that makes me want to throw a coffee-to-go in a cup and make the trek. And I don’t even drink coffee! It’s probably for kids but hey, aren’t we all kids at heart. More play please! And long live adventure (even if a long drive)! (MR)
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Nov 22 - Corita Day (Marciano Foundation) I’ve written in a past newsletter about my love for the work of artist/nun Corita Kent and her resistance to neatly fitting in a box. As a parent who refuses to spend all her time on the playground/birthday party/kid museum circuit, I also have a love for events that really work across ages (like Lightscape by Doug Aiken at the Marciano last Dec). Corita Day looks like it fits the bill with art making, food, exhibitions of her work, and performances by Bob Baker Marionette in celebration of what would be Corita’s 101st birthday. (BK)
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Nov 26 - Thanksgiving Community Dinner Volunteering (Hollywood Food Coalition) The Hollywood Food Coalition has been serving nightly community meals 365 days a year with rescued food since 1987. But according to friend of the newsletter, Liz Lash, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, they create something truly special. At a formal sit-down Thanksgiving meal, guests experience the kind of thoughtful service many of us take for granted: a warm welcome at the door, fresh flowers throughout the room, and water glasses attentively refilled. A dedicated team of staff and volunteers comes together for this single day to offer people who are often overlooked by society the care and dignity they so deeply deserve—and are too rarely afforded. They've just opened up volunteer spots for this year's meal, and I can't imagine a better way to spend a few hours during the holiday. And if you can't make this particular meal, they have plenty of other opportunities to volunteer and ways to support their work throughout the year. (BK)
Ode To A Strip Mall: The “Bare Ruined Choirs” Strip, Pasadena
Pasadena Villa Parke Strip Mall
We don’t get much of a fall in Southern California, but when I happened past this abandoned lot out near Villa Parke over the weekend, I thought to myself, “maybe that’s what fall looks like out here.” It’s not like I think strip malls shed their commercial concerns every November only to regenerate them in the spring, but I do think that fall is a metaphor as well (obviously), and strip malls do certainly have seasons of their own, so… yeah. Let this be a reminder to us all: winter is coming. And by “winter” I mean annihilation (as this strip mall well knows). Happy fall, everyone!
In a more optimistic mode, it is interesting to consider what this lot could eventually transform into. For now, even “abandoned strip mall” seems like an exaggeration, but at the same time, what is a strip mall if not a bunch of parking spots and a few random businesses. I see the remains of two such businesses at present, but this place is ripe for a kiosk (coffee booth, anyone!?) or several, to say nothing of food trucks. Today, it is a desert, but with a bit of watering, who knows what will grow…
Still, we’ve got to do our grades, and right now, the scene is indeed quite bleak.
One Essential Neighborhood Business: N/A
Whimsy Factor: 0
Variety Level: 0
Life Expectancy, if Forced to Take Residency for an Extended Period of Time: My understanding is that human beings can only go three days without water.
