Screen & Green: Outdoor 'L.A.' Movies At Barnsdall Park

Yeah, the Militant has been blogging about public space quite a lot this week. But hey!

Looking for something to do tonight? Something that doesn't cost too much? Head over to the public space atop Olive Hill known as Barnsdall (Please don't pronounce it "Barnsdale" but "Barns-Doll") Art Park by Hollywood and Vermont before 7:30 p.m. for the third of their Outdoor 'L.A.' Movies series this month, where they screen four films from the past few decades that are set in, and feature the architecture and landscape of Los Angeles.

The Militant was there on the nocturnal outdoor cinema series' first night, coincidentally on Los Angeles' birthday on September 4, and saw 2009's 500 Days of Summer, a film that was shockingly similar to the Militant's life in unspecified ways...But he digresses. It was the perfect climate and vibe up there on the west lawn of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, attended by some 300-plus people. Yeah, there's a few hipsters there (It's just up the hill from Los Feliz Village after all), but the majority are more civilized, educated type folk. Best of all, the move starts right after the sun goes down, and the colorful glow of Hollywood Blvd can easily be seen to the west - the perfect backdrop.

Tonight, they're screening 1997's L.A. Confidential, the James Ellroy-penned crime drama set in the early 1950s starring a couple of Australian actors playing LAPD officers. Crikey!

The movie ain't free, but the $10 admission goes to the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation and their programs.

You're free to bring your own picnic a la Hollywood Bowl, or there's about three or four food trucks parked in the lot just north of the Hollyhock House. Parking is crazy since you know everyone else is gonna drive there, but take the (M) Red Line to the Vermont/Sunset station and walk up Barnsdall Avenue to the park entrance stairs, or just bike up there like the Militant did!

Missed tonight's film? Come check it next Saturday for the final screening of the series with 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Celebrate Los Angeles' 229th Birthday Weekend!

Whatup, Angelenos?! Tomorrow is Los Angeles' 229th birthday, and it's so huge, most businesses will be closed on Monday! Oh wait, it's a national holiday? OK, whatever. But here's some kick-ass events to celebrate your city's b-day!

Pobladores History Walk - 6 a.m. to 12 noon, San Gabriel Mission to Olvera Street. Every true Angeleno must do this at least once in their life! Re-enact the original 9-mile journey by our City's founders on foot (Bring comfortable shoes)! The walk was canceled for the first time last year due to the Station Fire, so if you were planning on doing it last year, now is your chance! The Militant did the walk in 2007 and had a great time (the blisters were a bitch though).

2nd Annual Leimert Park Village African Art & Music Festival - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 43rd St. and Degnan Ave, Leimert Park (also Sunday and Monday). Enjoy "The Soul of Los Angeles" with this three-day free festival featuring African and Africa-American music, arts, crafts and food. Last year's festival was a blast, and this year's should be even bigger!

Outdoor 'L.A.' Movies At Barnsdall Park - 7:30 p.m., Barnsdall Park, Hollywood. Cap off the day with this first-in-a-series outdoor screening of famous Los Angeles-based films at Barnsdall Park. Saturday night's featured film will be 2009's 500 Days Of Summer. Upcoming films are: Sept. 11: LA Story (1991); Sept. 18: LA Confidential (1997) and Sept 25: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). The movies aren't free, they cost $10 a person, but the proceeds go to the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation and their programs.

Preserving America In Thai Town

Sunday in Los Angeles was a huge-ass mutha of a day in terms of our multiculturalism. So much, that even the Militant couldn't even cover it all. There was Thai Cultural Day in Barnsdall Park, L.A. Commons' BBQ Adventure in Little Armenia, a Central American carnival on 7th Street in Westlake.

Ultimately the Militant settled on Thai Cultural Day, not only because of its relative proximity to the Militant's compound, but because one of the Militant's Thai community operatives invited him personally to attend an historical moment in the community.

In July, Los Angeles' Thai Town was given a nationally-recognized designation as a "Preserve America" community. That designation is a federal initiative, overseen by First Lady Laura Bush to support and recognize localities across the U.S. that preserve its cultural heritage.

Obviously you would think that various East Coast burgs named after battle sites that pop up in the Revolutionary or Civil War chapters of high school history books would be the sole recipients of such a designation. And they were probably the first ones named. But to have the federal government - mind you, a bunch of suits in the D.C. Beltway - recognize the part of Los Angeles known for silk shops, massage spas, pad see ew and Thai Elvis as a culturally-significant slice of the US of A is a HUGE deal. Heck, recognizing any part of Los Angeles in that way is a huge deal.

There are some people who dare call themselves "Angelenos" who aren't fond of the cultural enclave thing. They say it's "exclusive." They say those communities "build walls." They claim their denizens inherently "breed criminal elements." They believe such designated ethnic communities "discourage assimilation." They maintain such communities "divide" us.

The Militant knows they're all wrong.

Those kinds of people fail, or refuse to recognize that these communities never actually shut people out. Exclusive? These are low-income communities. The last thing they want is for others to stay out. Building walls? They build bridges. Criminal elements? Sometimes, but that's only because the powers-that-be want these places to be out of their radar. Discourage assimilation? Uh, these places are where assimilation begins (Los Angeles used to have a "Little Italy," which all but vanished because assimilation went a little too well). Divide? Why not see what these places have to offer -- they'll probably teach one that we're more alike than different. The only ones doing the "dividing" are the ones who shun these places out of fear.

The Militant's Thai community operative ezplained to the Militant that the application process for this designation was no easy feat, but Thai Town's application had enough substance to convince the feds that this was the real deal.

On Sunday afternoon, in the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, a two-hour program featuring various politicos (Assemblyman Kevin De Leon, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Councilman Bernard Parks), various representatives and other community folk culminated in the unveiling of one of the signs (pictured right) that will welcome those who enter Thai Town in the near future, reminding them that this place is a "Preserve America" kind of community.

But aside from signage, these communities are also entitled to special federal grants for community development and tourism efforts. Thai Town may have been designated by the City nine years ago, but it's still a dynamic work in progress, especially in these economic times, and most especially since only two buildings in all of Thai Town are actually owned by Thai American entities.

Elsewhere in California, places like Monterey have already gotten this designation. Locally, it will by no means stop at Thai Town. Los Angeles' Chinatown has also gotten this designation, and the rest of the designated Asian enclaves (Little Tokyo, Koreatown and Historic Filipinotown) will follow suit.

Most Angelenos know that these ethnic communities are the benchmarks of our City's diversity. But for them to be recognized on a national level means so much more than pretty aluminum signs and a few redevelopment grants here and there. It means that they are benchmarks of this entire nation's diversity - forged right here in Los Angeles.

Though despite the federal accolades, it'll still be months before you'll see the signs go up on The Boulevard. See, there are these city signage ordinances that need to be followed, and another lengthy application process to get signage put up...and a budget to have the City install them...Yes, friends, City Hall can give you an even harder time than the White House.

East Is East: The 'East of Eden' Art Exhibition At Barnsdall Park

The Militant isn't an art scenester, but he does appreciate a good exhibit when he sees one. When one of his operatives told him to check out this weekend's exhibition at Barnsdall (don't pronounce it "Barnsdale") Art Park's Municipal Gallery, a multi-gallery show entitled East of Eden, he decided to do some Militant research. So off to the website he went.

And there went the description:

"East of Eden will focus on contributions of Los Angeles galleries, the cultures from which they draw inspiration and the eastside of L.A. as an important source for contemporary art."

Uh-oh. The "E" word.

Then he did further research on the galleries represented: places like La Luz de Jesus in Los Feliz, Black Maria in Atwater Village, Ghetto Gloss in Silver Lake, Bert Green Fine Art (now why does that name sound awfully familiar? Hmmmm.... ) in Downtown...

Oh you know where this is heading!

But the Militant thought that raising a ruckus at this event over "The 'E' Word" would be self-defeating. Especially since ir would be that much easier to unmask the Militant. Bleah...

But the Militant went anyway, trying to apprehend the situation with an open mind...

...Disregarding the incessantly-annoying "'E' Word," the bigger question was...does this art represent contemporary Angeleno art? Or is it just a smattering of ironic hispter fodder?

The Militant is no art critic, nor does he claim to possess an art critic's vocabulary, but in short, the art was very representative of contemporary Los Angeles art. There were pieces that had obvious iconography or images like palm trees, coastal Malibu seascapes, or a painting of a trio of cholas hanging out, but even outside of that, on a more visceral level, there was an attitude that the Militant didn't have to find a challenge to identify with.

The biggest complaint was the duration of the exhibit. It opened on Friday and by the time most of you read this, it had already closed. Which is unusually for Barnsdall exhibits, which usually last a good three months.

The Militant hopes they do this again. He understands their intention is to promote the (cough, gag, ack) Not-Really-The-Eastside art scene as a reaction to the Westside arts "establishment." But Westsidecentrism is soooo late 20th century. Why not drop the "Eastside" thing, these artists can basically stake claim on the whole City now, Westsiders be damned.

Oh yeah, one more thing before this post closes. One of the pieces gave the Militant a "giant" smile:

Word.

Of Pigeons and Pedestrians

The Militant was riding his bike along The Boulevard on Saturday afternoon when he turned around, looked and exclaimed:

"OMG! PIGEON ISLAND!!!1"

Of course, if this were an average city blog entry, it would just be left at that, a mere curiosity meant to entertain, and perhaps to implicitly get people to comment, with the response by Anonymous #4 revealing what the real deal is.

But naw, the Militant likes to get to the bottom of the story, so here it is.

The "pigeon island" on the triangle-like median bordered by Hollywood Blvd and Vermont and Prospect avenues (surprise, surprise, it was a well-patronized Red Car stop back in the day) located on the mutual cusps of Los Feliz and East Hollywood is a long-neglected public space currently being renovated as part of a streetscape project of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, dubbed the Barnsdall Park Transit Oriented District.

After breaking ground this past Spring, the project (finished rendering pictured left) is designed to not only offer an enhanced public space for pedestrians in the area, but to improve existing bus and taxi amenities there, establish a local information center for nearby sights and attractions and visually tie the space to nearby Barnsdall Art Park, which, for those of you who don't know, lurks up on the hill...behind the Rite Aid.

The $800,000 project is expected to be complete by early 2009. Until then, those pigeons seem to be having a dandy of a time hanging out there.

My Name Is Los Angeles, And I Am Beautiful

The first day of sunshine after a winter rainstorm is usually the day postcard photographers scramble to take that moneyshot of the Downtown skyline and the snowcapped San Gabriels. When the Militant headed out today to perform a couple Militant duties, he looked northeast and saw them. Beautiful is the word of the day. Later, the Militant biked up Olive Hill at Barnsdall Park, took some pics, and just sat down and enjoyed the view. This was the first time in a long time where he recalled the snow level being so low.

He obviously wasn't the only one armed with a camera (pictured right). He saw at least three other photographers snapping the newly-blanched local mountains, some with fancy gear with telephot lenses, some digital cameras, some simple point-and-shooters.

The Militant found a social atmosphere as those of us who took pictures of the same thing commented on how beautiful they were. The Militant recommended to another photographer an even better vantage point in the park, unobstructed by buildings or trees. He also chatted with the woman above who had just pulled her car up alongside where the Militant was. The woman, in her 60s, commented that she had lived here for nine years and would like to share the pic to her friends in the East Coast, who think that the west is devoid of any beauty, just to prove them wrong.

She also commented on how the mountains to the west (the Verdugos) were more snow-covered than the San Gabriels. She assumed they were taller, but the Militant explained that the San Gabriels face the city, which is warmer because of all the concrete, and that the Verdugos are much closer to the forest, where the distance from the urban heat island keeps the temps down.

As the Militant types this, the grey skies are back. He's glad he had the opportunity to see the awesome splendor that towers over the City.

Sure, it snows in other places, even other cities with mountains, but the contrast of the white snow, the blue sky, the brown lower elevations, the greenery of the trees and the various other colors that make up the City displays a spectacular contrast and chromatic variety, as opposed to a homogenized, monochromatic blanketing of snow as far as the eye can see.

There's got to be a metaphor in that somewhere...

Of Winter Hibernation And Lame Excuses

The Militant hates making excuses, but it seems Winter is not an ideal season for the Militant. The days are shorter and the nights are not as eventful, which is a good reason why he hasn't taken to blogging lately (the other is a few major unspecified extramilitant projects he is occupied with). Granted, it's a little warmer during the day lately (which is one of the reasons he's taken back to blogging for the first time in over a week) but the days are oh-so short that the sun barely has a chance to warm up the sky.

On Thursday, the Militant took another walk with his K-9 unit around an unspecified area near his compound. While walking up to Barnsdall Park, he saw a fleet of eerie and awesome lenticular clouds hovering over Mt. Lee (where the Hollywood Sign stands) and the North Hollywood-Burbank area. Surely the Militant would have snapped this breathtaking sight, enhanced by the reddish glow of the setting sun, which was sinking fast behind the silhouette of the Westside, but he didn't have his Militant cam on him. Yeah, no excuse.

Saturday was the first day this year he took to his bike; today was the second. And it's probably a good time to get a tune-up.

Damn, '08, give the Militant a jump-start already!

Things To Do During Limbo Week - Wednesday

Greetings, Angelenos! Hope you had a great Christmas. This is the time of the year where we're faces with two holidays within a week of each other, and we're either on a short vacation/break or forced to go to work with very little activity, much less productivity. The Militant calls it...Limbo Week!

For the rest of the week, the Militant will offer suggestions on how to bide your time, whether you have the whole week off, or whether you're forced to hold down the fort at the office. True to Militant style, the following suggestions are either free or come at very little cost (you need it since you've probably accrued additional credit card debt the past few weeks anyway).

Wednesday's Vacation Option: humor us Exhibit at Barnsdall Park's Art Gallery

Whether you got some free time on your hands, or want to entertain out-of-town guests (remember, people might have left town, but others have come back home for the Holidays), go check out an exhibition called humor us at Barnsdall Art Park. It's a multi- and mixed- media exhibit of over 100 works by twenty Asian American artists with ties to Southern California, which explore the all facets and interpretations of humor, while exploring issues of cultural identity, race and representation. According to the exhibit's literature, "Often the butt of jokes or the comic relief within mainstream media - from Fu Manchu to William Hung of American Idol notoriety - Asians and Asian Americans are often stereotyped as eternal foreigners, model minorities, inscrutable, nerdy and yes, humorless."

The works consist of everything from paintings, photographs, sculpture, industrial art, videos, audio and even a large snail rollercoaster and a rock that thinks via an LED thought bubble. Interesting stuff that's very scant on the usual cliches of this kind of art, and most of all the Militant doesn't know any of the artists personally, which means that it the exhibit won't suck.

humor us is free and runs until December 30.

humor us
Municipal Art Gallery
Barnsdall Art Park
4800 Hollywood Blvd
Los Feliz/East Hollywood DMZ
Open daily, 12 noon-5 p.m.


Wednesday's At-Work Option: Check Out the UnHipLA Blog

Stuck at work? Workload is close to nil? Wondering why you're even there in the first place? Open your browser and check out a new blog! Thanks to a tip from one of his most trusted operatives, the Militant adds another approved guerrilla faction to his blogroll in UnHipLA, written by a SGV-based Un-Hipster who has actually been blogging for a little over a year and covers largely food, shops and events in The Other Valley. Recent entries: 90-cent pumpkin empanadas, the new Whole Foods Market in Pasadena and a little-known, but mega-affordable Taiwanese street food eatery in San Gabe. The blogger also makes a lot of allusions to biggestmenu.com, which is also the reason for the abundance of food-related topics (though it's UnHipLA is not strictly a foodie blog). It's also not strictly an SGV blog either, as some of the posts also cover events and places in Little Tokyo, Historic Filipinotown, Miracle Mile and even Hong Kong.

In some ways, it's kind of like the Militant's blog, minus the activism and militancy and plus more food and 626-related subject matter. Drop on by and tell UnHip the Militant sent ya!

UnHipLA (www.unhipla.com)

Scenes From The First Day Of Winter

The first day of Winter, 2007, Los Angeles. A day after the rain, which was swept away briskly by high winds the night before. This is the kind of day that postcard photographers live for.

The San Gabriel Mountains are in the background (with Mt. Lowe and the antenna-topped Mt. Wilson to the left and the snow-capped Mt. San Antonio (stage name: Mt. Baldy) to the right. Los Feliz and the Franklin Hills sits in the foreground. Taken from Barnsdall Art Park.

Dog Day Afternoon in December

It's December now?

How time flies. Of course, this is a Southern California December and Monday's high was in the low 80s, so the Militant decided to walk his K-9 unit around the area on Monday afternoon and having been in a park-advocating mood in the past week, decided to visit one of the few parks within a 2-mile radius of his compound - Barnsdall Art Park.

Not only was this the first time he took his K-9 unit to the park, but this was the first time in a long-ass time the Militant visited the park for the specific purpose of enjoying it as a park. Sure he went there over the past few months to cover a Thai cultural festival, to try to understand the purpose and theme of the Swerve Festival and may or may nor have voted for his operatives at a recent neighborhood council election which took place there several weeks ago. But this time he just went there for no particular reason other than enjoying the park.

He took his K-9 unit on a long climb up the stairs in the park's southern entrance and even further up to the top of Olive Hill, where they went to the park's west-facing Great Lawn which afforded a killer view of the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory to the north (pictured above -- pic is a file photo taken in September - lest you notice the absence of the currently-yellow hydromulched areas in thar hills - as the Militant neglected to take along the Militant Cam this time around).

The Great Lawn, whose renovation was completed this past Summer, furnished the neighborhood-jewel and Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock House with a drought-resistant native plants (the Militant doesn't just give the native homo sapiens a voice, but the native flora as well) and a water-saving smart irrigation system for the green grassy area.

On the lawn, the Militant's K-9 unit ended up trying to socialize with another person's bulldog mix (of the opposite sex), with the two human leash-handlers exchanging humorous and sometimes apologetic comments regarding canine behavior as their respective pawed ones growled and barked at each other. The Militant's K-9 unit isn't the most sociable dawg, so the Militant tries his best to acclimate it to (dog) society. It doesn't always work though.

The Militant even tried to calm the K-9 unit down as it continued to bark and pull on the leash as the Militant looked west, covering the almost-setting sun with his hand, and enjoying the unobstructed view of the Baldwin Hills and the silhouetted Century City-Westwood skyline. He could even see the whitish glow of the marine layer looming in the distance where the ocean would be. And the first thing going on in the Militant's mind was, "This is going in the blog."

The Militant took the K-9 unit elsewhere in the park, especially to the art park's main gallery which was sporting an exhibit which runs until the end of the month. Naturally, the Militant's first inclination would be to cover it, but not only would he worry about where to park the K-9 unit, or remind himself that he forgot to bring the Militant cam again, but the gallery was closed for the day. But the Militant shall return.

In today's 21st century urbia, our lives get too busy with responsibilities and purpose, sometimes it's worth it to take a "stop and smell the roses" kind of moment with even a familiar area institution, to see it from another perspective. Maybe that's why this city never gets dull or boring for the Militant.

Swerving Away From The Action

It was a sunny, warm early autumnal Sunday, which was just fine for the Militant as he still wishes it were Summer and not Fall. Close enough.

So there was some event called the Swerve Festival going on this weekend at various locales, including Barnsdall Park, where the Militant had to attend to some covert Militant activities, totally unrelated to the festival. The Militant was never really clear what this festival was all about, but according to the website, it's described as, " a new annual festival dedicated to celebrating West Coast creative culture and its community inspired by art, film, music and action sports." Which is odd, as the Militant - a Southern California native - considers himself interested in an unspecified number of those activities, yet never found much in this festival that really interested him. He did see some sort of environmentally-oriented exhibit (pictured above), which included an ethanol-powered grill that cooked popcorn which was for sale, a long row of decorated recycling bins and a set of stationary bicycles that recharged car batteries. The Militant thinks eco-stuff, as long as it's not too paleskinned hippy-dippy-flower- power in nature, is totally cool, as there's a purpose behind it, but nothing else looked that interesting, really. And there was hardly anyone in the park, which had much more vibrant atmosphere the previous weekend when it hosted Thai Cultural Day in the exact same space, so perhaps this festival didn't gain much local interest after all.

To be fair to the Swerve folks, though, there were a whole lot of other events happening this weekend, so maybe it was hard to get that captive audience. Hey, timing is everything. And perhaps this being the n00b phase for this particular festival, it takes time, and a reputation, to grow. But maybe next time they could be a little more focused on their theme or purpose. Over the past few months, the Militant attended the Feast of San Gennaro, Thai Cultural Day, FPAC , an arts festival in Little Armenia and the Lotus Festival to sample and learn more about the Italian, Thai, Filipino, Armenian and Asian/Pacific Islander cultures, respectively. The Militant still wasn't clear what kind of culture, theme or focus was being represented at Swerve.

Bussin' It West

The Militant hung out with an out-of-state operative visiting town for the weekend, who wanted to try out the (M) Orange Line busway for the first time (the operative quite enjoyed it) and rode the (M) Red Line subway towards the general vicinity of the Militant's compound. The Militant wanted the operative, a pizza connoisseur, to try out his favorite pizzeria, and since the operative already was in possession of a Metro Day Pass, the Militant recommended they ride Metro Rapid 704 to La Cienega Ave. The westbound bus was rather packed on a Sunday early afternoon, much to the surprise of both the Militant and the operative, who flew into town from a nearby state. After alighting at their destination and walking three blocks south, they sampled some slices of pie. which is normally quite good and currently subjected to various online accolades. Unfortunately, the re-heated slices were left in the oven a bit too long that they were slightly charred and worst of all, the namesake owner was not on the premises, which, according to various foodie types, partaking in a conversation with is part of the experience. The pizza was "good, but not amazing," according to the operative. But the operative was open to trying out the place again.

On the 704 ride back, after the operative showed the Militant some digital camera pics taken in the Central California coast over the weekend, the name "Atascadero" was a key word for another rider, a somewhat raggedy man in his 60s, to join in the conversation. He went on to mention that he spent time at the state hospital in that Central Coast town and once met serial killer John Wayne Gacy there. The operative continued the conversation with awkward fascination while the Militant politely nodded, but while writing this entry the Militant discovered that Gacy was never institutionalized there and in fact lived (and was subsequently imprisoned) in Illinois. Guess people can be so broken, so isolated, that they'd say anything for a conversation. Though the other rider wasn't threatening in any way, it's telling to see how mental illness might just become this country's downfall, affecting people from the very poor to the very rich.

But at least for today, the sun still shone for everyone who wanted to be under it.

Bangkok Park: Thai Cultural Day

The local Thai community was blessed with a sunny post-precipitation Sunday as Thai Cultural Day took place at Barnsdall (not "Barnsdale") Park in East Hollywood. The event, in its 14th year, was organized by the Venice-based Thai Community Arts and Cultural Center and featured community booths, clothing, imported products, dance performances, artistic displays (including fruit carving art, pictured left), historical re-enactments and food.

The capitol and prime city of Thailand is known to outsiders as "Bangkok" but its proper name is "Krung Thep," which is short for, "Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit." The largest Thai community outside of Thailand is in a city commonly referred to (often disrespectfully) as "L.A." but its proper name is "Los Angeles," which is short for "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles del Rio Porciúncula."

Both cities' names, in their respective languages of origin, mean "The City of Angels."

In this particular City of Angels, there are over 80,000 people of Thai descent. In addition to Thai Town, the community is distributed into various pockets, including North Hollywood, Orange County, the Westside and the Pomona Valley/Eastern San Gabriel Valley area.

At the festival, there were likenesses of Thailand's American-born (Cambridge, MA) monarch, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on blocks of ice (pictured right) or on canvas. Middle-aged Thai women hawked and bargained over silk clothing and high-school and college-aged Thai American youth just hung out. There was even a historical re-enactment display of 16th-century Siam with actors dressed as Portugese traders, who, despite their presence in the country, never colonized it. The trade eventually influenced many facets of Thai culture, such as the import of spices from India and Arabia and chili peppers from Mexico, which made its eventual imprint on Thai cuisine. Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that was never colonized by a foreign nation.

As endemic to any cultural festival, there was a food booth, but it sorely paled in comparison in terms of value to the much-missed Wat Thai weekend food court - a $5 "combo" at the festival got you a small bowl of rice and a meager, arbitrarily-selected chicken curry dish, despite having abundance of other dishes available. Oh well. At least no one can accuse the Militant of not supporting the cause.

On a better note, there was even a cultural tourism walking tour of Thai Town organized by LACommons. the Militant isn't allowed to report on whether or not he joined the tour, but operative reports revealed that the tourgoers learned a lot about the neighborhood, Thai cuisine (including the Thai concept of "yum," which is the balance of the four elements of Thai food flavors: spicy, sour, sweet and salty) and even stuffed themselves on generous amounts of free chow (and their inherent yum factor), courtesy of Hollywood Thai and Red Corner Asia.

A couple of the Militant's operatives were spotted at Thai Cultural Day, most notably Blackbird and Stingray. And perhaps the "bonus" reward to being there at the festival was the view of the Westside from Barnsdall Park's Great Lawn (pictured left).

Culture, a great view of the city and a recently-rainwashed sunny day in the City of Angels -- days like this the Militant lives for. But then again, it's just another day in the life of the Militant.