Brand Park Glendale, CA

Brand Park is situated in the Verdugo Mountains in the foothills of Glendale. For the hike to the top, start at the Green Cross statue of the lady and head straight up the hill towards the east radio towers for the easier side and up the fire road behind the doctor's house about a mile up past the landfill and then turn left when you get to the large sycamore tree for the steeper trail. The more challenging side also has a set of radio towers on top and ends at the top of Tongva Peak. It may help some people to wear cleats to get a better grip, but I have no problems using trail running shoes. Both sides are kind of steep and a good elevation gain, but are relatively short hikes. If you run down the fire road to the west of Tongva Peak, it will add a couple of miles to your run or hike (4.1 miles to the parking lot). At the halfway point of the east side, there are benches, and a nice view of Glendale, Burbank, Downtown, Silverlake, and the north side of Griffith Park. Pasadena, Tujunga and La Crescenta are visible when you get to the top and look over the other side. Things to take into account:

There is no shade

There are little gnats, flies and hornets so use DEET

There is no water

Like any hike, you can slip and fall and crack your head open and perish and the plants and animals don't care so just enjoy yourselves and don't take any unnecessary risks.

Superior views on clear days of the San Gabriel Mountains on one side, and the sprawl on the other

Rabbit, squirrel, coyote, and a bobcat or two.

A couple of nice oaks.

This park is filled with cool stuff in general. There is a branch of the Glendale public library and a Japanese tea house, but you probably knew that. The Brand Family graveyard is on the premises as well, and has a very cool pyramid tombstone. There is also a trail with waterfalls that you can access by walking up the asphalt road at the north end of the park, and hanging a left at the drainage ditch at the fork in the road. When you come to a pork in the road, take it.

This is a really good place to eat medicinal mushrooms and is super cool when it rains! The park closes at 10PM.

Bomb Bibm Bap

Jeon Ju 2716 W Olympic Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90006 (213) 386-5678

I have come back here a couple of times since my first visit and am impressed at all of the healthy lunches available at this place. You can come in here and eat a ton of clean, healthy, nutritious food and leave feeling fortified and grateful. One can never be too careful about preventing poison and foreign substances from being introduced into your precious bodily fluids so you had better eat right! There are 4 vegetarian bibimbap dishes on the menu, but the best by far is the namul bibimbap with nine kinds of vegetables including mushrooms. Or maybe it is only seven vegetables, but it is a lot of fucking vegetables in that hot stone bowl, that is a fact. Misers rejoice-it is flavorful, filling, and under ten bucks. The banchans here rock, today we were given eight varieties, all of them worthy of seconds. But what really sets this place apart are the wonderful women who work here and the awesome service.

Providence Seafood Restaurant - Fuck all that Avant Garde Shit!

Everything was lovely from the moment we walked in the door. We ordered the wonderful 15 course tasting menu, and my wife got the wine pairing which she said was excellent. It was all going peachy until I got an anaphylactic shock from the sea urchin and my face swelled until it looked like a bruised fruit. Thank goodness I had an Epi Pen at home. I was especially fond of the cheese selection. Overall, the food was interesting but prepared with some serious overkill. I like simple fresh seafood with a minimum of preparation and ingredients much better than this avant garde shit. I would not come back here unless someone else were paying, but I truly enjoyed the experience. If it were my birthday, I would rather go to Pa Ord!

A Fly on the Wall at the Pacific Dining Car

If I were reviewing the breakfast exclusively, I would have given them a perfect rating. The banana and pecan pancakes, Eggs Blackstone, fried potatoes, and the muffins are spectacular. The breakfast cooks know how to cook your eggs a perfect over medium or however you desire them and the coffee is first rate. The steaks are just plain hunks of dead, unseasoned cow flesh and that $55.00 price on the menu makes you think surely they must jest. On a brighter note, the creamed spinach is one of my favorite sides anywhere and the fried potatoes are similar but not identical to the ones that come from my own kitchen. If you are alcoholic, you can get a proper but expensive fix here. If you puke on your shirt in the bathroom, nod off on percocet, if the prostitute you came in here with starts to become belligerent and loud, or you and your friends are coming down slowly from acid, they aren't going to mind. Your money is still green here. Lots of high powered attorneys, judges and other assorted assholes routinely clog their arteries with Hollandaise Sauce in this dining room. If you were a fly on the wall, you would find this place very entertaining.

Lake Cachuma - So Close to Santa Barbara Yet So Far From God

I shroomed here with my brother before he died. Nice lake and decent campsites, although they are pretty close together. The people next to us seemed to be tweaking pretty hard, and turned their campsite into a kind of fortress. They used firewood and ice chests to wall themselves in and then left abruptly at 3am. You can walk around the lake and fish but not swim. Better options are available nearby on the coast but the lake is pleasant.

If You Get Stuck In Bakersfield….

Eat at WoolGrower's Restaurant. You will not regret it for a moment.

This is a very good place to stop if you are ever heading up the 99. The food is homestyle, and everything is made from scratch. You can get a very stiff drink at the bar while you are waiting or select from a few proletarian beers in the bottle or can. This is not a white glove establishment, but the garlic fried chicken and the roast lamb are solid bets, the portions are large, and you can have as many beans, refills of salad, bread, tomato salsa, and garlic tongue as you like. It is reminiscent of Centro Basco in Chino, but the atmosphere here is way better. You can get some extras with your meal such as a piece of cheese. The service is really friendly. Overall, this place is a very good time.

Phillip's BBQ Motherfucker

I think Phillip's pork ribs, links, and rib tips are the best I have tasted in Los Angeles. I lived in Houston for a short while, and can verify that Phillip can hold his own (Phillip is from Louisiana). The beans are good, but I don't come here for the sides. I take the meat home, and we make our own potato salad and coleslaw.

The pork ribs with the HOT SAUCE (with whole arbol chilies in the sauce) are so good that I could just keep eating until the entire rack is gone. You can go ahead and pour the sauce directly in my mouth. The pork ribs are smoky all the way to the bone, trimmed of excess fat and seasoned with plain salt and pepper to highlight the goodness of the meat. The sliced beef links and are a bit grainy, have a nice kick to them, and are wonderful smothered in the (HOT) sauce and scooped up with a piece of plain white bread and helped down with some strong, cold IPA. I used to drink Rainer Ale with this at one time.

I have been buying meat here for many years and it is not the slightest bit sketchy, and it is not in the "ghetto". The location on Crenshaw and Adams used to be Leo's, but now that Phillip took it over, the quality is A+ #1! I just dare you not to eat a rib on the way home. I double dog dare you!