"Something's fishy here..."Aki is always a good sport when we take him with us to do grown-up stuff. A couple of weekends ago, we turned the tables and tagged along with him to the
Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, one of L.A.'s kid-friendliest places.
There's no better way to start off a day at an aquarium than with a nice hot plate of Fish 'n Chips. After we got ourselves stinking with salt, oil, tartar, and malt vinegar, we let Aki try out his sea legs by walking around outside.
He was pretty brave about touching everything, including the sting rays, starfish, and sea urchins. He cooed at the tubby sea lions, and reached out for the colorful lorikeets. But his favorite part, I think, was the shark lagoon.
"Dada, these teeth are kinda big..."
It was also the last day of the Aquarium's Autumn Festival, which featured booths and performances by different Asian cultural groups. The most virtuosic of these was probably a group of Korean girls who literally bent over backwards to show off their percussion chops.
These days As soon as Aki gets his shoes on, it's off to the races. He also wants to hug every kid in sight, and since not every child reacts to this positively, there's a lot of dashing around, blocking, and prying apart involved. Mommy and Daddy are getting a lot more exercise these days!
Who's crabby? Not me!
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Song: The Funeral
Artist: Band of Horses
Album: Everything All the Time
Year: 2006
The Funeral, Band of Horses' blazing anthem off their 2006 album Everything All the Time, starts off like the opposite of a lullaby, hushed and reverent. It has the feel of coming up out of a dream or a fever. Then the band kicks up the wattage, and the brooding lyrics are set off by fierce, defiant, clear-eyed chords and rhythms that peal away any layer of self-pity you might expect from a song with lyrics like "For every occasion, I'll be ready for a funeral."
We spent the second part of our anniversary night at the squeaky-clean Club Nokia in the new L.A. Live complex, swimming in Band of Horses' soaring wall of sound. Sure enough, they played "The Funeral" toward the end of their set of dense, ecstatic songs.
I love Band of Horses' albums, but Bridwell's high, lean, not-too-gritty but not-too-pretty voice is better live, and so is the band: They don't dilute their sound with as much reverb as they do on the albums, and you hear more of their musicality: the Southern rock DNA they share with My Morning Jacket (Band of Horses was formed in Seattle but is now based in Bridwell's native South Carolina), and the folk and indie rock intensity of Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, and alt-country rockers like Uncle Tupelo.
With their skinny, bearded indie look, Band of Horses looks like a cross between a Wes Anderson cast and a bunch of haggard Civil War veterans. In the middle of their set, they treated us to some new songs off the album they're currently recording. We loved a new song featuring band member Ryan Monroe's lead vocals and keyboards, thick with harmonizing that would make Fleet Foxes smile (come to think of it, Monroe looks like he could be a Fleet Fox himself). And another new song even made me think of my favorite band from Minnesota, the late, great Jayhawks.
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For years, holidays didn't mean much more to me than the possibility of a day off, a couple of beers with some buddies, and a September to December sensory assault by the retail sector: costumes, candy, tinsel, and tryptophan.
Then I became a dad.
This happens to people every day, of course, but it often changes people's lives so quickly that they don't even have time to stop and take stock of the ways that their lives are changing.
Well, future parents, take note: Side effects of having a child may include drowsiness, weight gain, and seeing the holiday season with a fresh pair of eyes.
We spent Aki's first real Halloween (he was an eensy-weensy three-weeks old last Halloween) at a couple of Halloween parties. The first was Aki's girlfriend Sonoma's first birthday party, which was at her parents' house in the Glendale hills, complete with games, Hawaiian food, and "round" costumes.
The second party was at Aki's auntie's house in San Marino, where we even rediscovered the fun of door-to-door trick-or-treating. For both Yuri and I, it was the first time we'd gone trick-or-treating in almost 20 years!
When we first started feeding Aki solids, we were surprised at how emotionally satisfying it was to just see your child eat. In the same way, it's incredibly satisfying just to see your child experience the world.
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Life has been moving pretty fast for us lately (Aki is
walking!), and there are a bunch of great eateries we haven't had a chance to dish about yet, if you'll pardon the pun.
Way,
way back in May, for example, Dr. & Mrs. T treated us all to a feast at
Barbrix, a new wine bar and restaurant in Silver Lake. The occasion: a slightly belated birthday bash for both Tommy and Yuri.
Barbrix had just opened, and it was already chalking up rave reviews. In its first week, according to co-owner Claudio Blotta (of
Campanile fame), Barbrix already had regulars. It's easy to see why: The wines are delicious and eclectic, but not overpriced; the food is, in the words of our hero Jonathan Gold, "surgically designed" to match with the wines; and the atmosphere is casual, a neighborhood spot you can stroll to. You can pop into the long, low-ceiling'd, dark wood interior -- a converted bungalow with a walk-in wine bar -- or you can nab a table in the front-end patio ringed with lemon and olive saplings.
Baba, Mommy, and Baby at Barbrix.
Daddy and Uncle Tommy after a few glasses of wine.
Barbrix rides the wave of small plate innovators (two of our favorites are Orris and Cobras & Matadors) who have revitalized the conversational, wine-sipping, "variety pack" aspects of dining in L.A. Unlike many of these places, though, Barbrix's dishes are all clear and distinct. We could give a blow-by-blow run-down of everything we tasted, but that would be moot. To keep everything fresh, Chef Don Dickman draws from local farmers and markets; as a consequence, the menu is seasonal and changes often.
Give Peas a Chance: The summer faro salad
In general, though, we found a range of mostly pan-Mediterranean flavors, like the multi-textured summar farro salad: English peas, pine nuts, mint, feta cheese, and red onions. It was hard to choose from so many yummy looking dishes, but luckily for us, Yuri had done her research. She unfolded several printed blog posts (in color! with her picks highlighted and underlined!), and ordered away.
You're pulling my duck leg!
Among the standouts were the drool-worthy duck leg confit, with a handsomely caramelized skin (browned with fig wine) and a smattering of mouth-watering potatoes.
Angelic deviled eggs.
The deviled eggs were nothing to brush off, either. Draped with boquerones (small, filleted anchovies that are a tapas standby), we can only classify them lovingly as eggs-quisite flavor bombs.
Baby and Auntie Lisa.
We sat out on the patio, which is good for both clinking glasses with your trendy urbanite pals and enjoying a family meal with a feisty little baby. The dusk was just criss-crossing our cutlery and wine glasses as we sat, and the evening got a little cold, but luckily we had Aki's aunt, uncle, Ojii-san and Obaa-san with us to help keep him warm. There's nothing like a good meal in a good setting with good company!
Aki does his best doll impression with Baba and Jiji.
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These are fun times with Aki. He's babbling up a storm, he's eating everything in sight, and a couple of weeks ago, he took his first steps by the beach in Malibu during Sasha's birthday party at the newly opened Annenberg Community Center.
This past weekend, he even got gussied up and hit the town for his first art opening at the
L'KEG Gallery on Glendale Blvd. downtown. Yuri's good friend Carrie was responsible for half the show, aptly called
Icons and Tangles -- a playful, poppy, colorful exploration of interlaced or pixellated celebrity imagery, with chops and structural prowess to spare.
Aki had his favorites, including a thickly layered, bright orange canvas with the smirking mugs of Brad and Angelina, Colin Powell, Danny DeVito, and the President and First Lady.
We liked them all, and were glad the little guy was such a good sport about hitting the art scene on a Saturday night.
Icons and Tangles runs through October 17th at L'KEG. We highly recommend it (and there's a decent taco stand just a couple of blocks away, where Chris hung out with Michael for his "Man Baby Shower"). Congratulations, Carrie!
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