yO Venice! Im finally uploading pictures from the Abbot Kinney Festival 2010. The mile long street was closed off from cars, allowing only pedestrian traffic from Main St to Venice Blvd, on Sunday September 26. The entire strip was packed with vendors, food trucks, concert stages and beer gardens. If you haven’t been to Abbot Kinney Blvd here in Venice, I suggested you visit. It can easily take an entire day to explore the eclectic mix of 100+ retailers, furniture stores, restaurants and bars.

It was literally shoulder to shoulder for the entire mile of the street

The Brig had an outdoor Do-Over of sorts in their parking lot – I really wish they did this with more regularity

I love modern architecture, but not at the expense of classic historical buildings (and it doesn’t have to be registered to be historical people). This is a great example of a trend that is gaining momentum: preserving the front facade by incorporating it into the modern structure.

New Belgium beer garden – who doesn’t rove Fat Tire?

The joke for today was: it’s finally summer in LA,… but it’s the end of September. Record heat in downtown LA at 113 degrees, breaking the old record of 112 degrees set in June of 1990. There wasn’t even wind blowing on the coast, allowing the temp to reach 105 here on the beaches! The heat did feel good for a change, but I’m glad the day is finally over. A few pics from the evening here on the coast. Smoggy sunset in full effect.

It’s been a long and cold winter here in Southern California. It’s mid-July and it wasn’t until last week that the sun thankfully decided to come out. So friends decided to come over and we biked to Santa Monica for food & dranks. It seemed like all of LA was at the beach. Seriously, I don’t think Ive ever seen this many people physically on the sand at once. It kinda reminded me of those vintage black & white pics where the entire beach is covered with coat & top hat wearing beach goers. On the way back we caught a bit of the Venice Beach portion of the Summer Fix LA Competition sponsored by LA Brakeless. The wifey just got a brand new cruiser and now wants a bright, multi-colored Fixie… grrreat, we don’t even have enough room for all the bikes we currently own.

This past Friday, DJ Neil Armstrong of the 5th Platoon, and better known as Jay-Z’s tour DJ, made a stop at LA’s Soul Sessions in Chinatown. I first heard of DJNA back in 2005. Ever since then, I’ve been following him and every one of his mix tape releases. What makes his mix tapes stand above everything else is his eclectic musical taste. Anything from Prince, The Cure, Coldplay, Tears for Fears to Alicia Keys, Gregory Abbot, Common and Jay-Z can all be found on the same CD. He recently finished a worldwide tour with Jay-Z as his tour DJ. This has no doubt catapulted him into the mainstream spotlight and I’m glad that a lot more people will be exposed to his work.

I had a chance to catch Neil right before his set at Soul Sessions and he was nice enough to stop for a quick picture to represent Social Clothing.

A huge crowd gathered at the front stage when he started his set. I made sure I had my spot at the front. Simply put, he killed it. I don’t think there was a head that wasn’t bobbin that night.

With DJ PlannB

Grand Star Jazz Club

Soul Sessions is held at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown every 2nd and 4th Friday. Thank you DJ Neil Armstrong for bringing the West Coast some love.

Twitter:
DJ Neil Armstrong
Soul Sessions

Most people associate Downtown Santa Ana with local government buildings, homeless people and jury duty. A lot has changed in recent years and it no longer deserves that stigma. In a little unassuming store front on Broadway, you’ll find one of the more unique spots on Orange County. In fact, it was voted best bar in all of Orange County two years in a row. The Crosby is a restaurant, bar, bookstore started by 3 friends who all had the same vision.

The Crosby recently celebrated their 2 year anniversary on April 1st. To celebrate they had DJ Rhettmatic of the World Famous Beat Junkies and PlannB, resident DJ of LA’s Soul Sessions spin some classic, definitive hip hop. Here are some shots from that night.

The Crosby is open Monday through Saturday from 5p-2a. You can catch Rhettmatic and PlannB at the Crosby every 1st Thursday of the month.

The Crosby
400 N. Broadway
Santa Ana CA 92701
www.thisisthecrosby.com