Santa Anita Race Track - Originally Published 2009

Santa Anita Race Track is nestled in the community of Arcadia in the San Gabriel Valley.  The track opened in 1934 and in its history has hosted champion thoroughbreds such as the famous Seabiscuit.  However, it was also a place that Japanese Americans were forced to call home during their forced internment during World War II.

Like many folks my age, I have never caught the bug for horse racing.  And yet, generations past have been fascinated by it.  One day in 1958, 61,000 people showed up here to watch horse races.  61,000 people.  What fascinated all of them to come spend a day at the track and bet on horses?  Just take a look at some of these pictures.  Obviously, horse racing has lost its luster.

And then look at this picture.  There is a quiet desperation in some of these eyes.  These are track people, people who have spent a lifetime betting on horse races.  Even though this place has filed Chapter 11, the relevance of the horse track has not been lost on these souls.

Guinness World's Records Museum - Originally Published 2009

I don’t believe in the concept of hell.  There is a fundamental flaw about hell that the church overlooked when they made it up.  People get used to things, even terrible, horrible things.  I’m sure that it takes a few thousand years to get accustomed to burning in a lake of fire, but once you do it ends up being more an inconvenience than a punishment.

Take the Guinness World’s Records Museum in Hollywood.  This place is an abomination.  Yet, I would be willing to bet that most people have allowed it to blend into the urban landscape.  It sits on Hollywood Boulevard near Mann’s Chinese Theater.

For $17, you get a ticket to this place and one to the Hollywood Wax Museum across the street.

As expected, there is the usual assortment of freaky people, some of the longhaired variety.

Remember Lite-Brite?  This is the world’s biggest Lite-Brite picture coming in at 4’ by 6’.

One time my friend Scott told me that his grandma died because she was picking her navel and accidentally opened herself up.  He told me the tale as a warning.  I remember his closing words of advice: “Don’t do it because if it opens up, it’s impossible for the doctors to sew it closed.”

But I digress.  This picture sucks, but the words say, “Rotate the drum towards you to see if you know the right answer.”  The problem?  There is no drum.  This mistake was repeated throughout the museum.

See that black box?  There was supposed to be a television there showing an amazing clip of some kind.  However, no television and no amazing clip.  Way to go Guinness!

The plunger on the floor in this picture is supposed to make something blow up.  I don’t know what was supposed to blow up because it wasn’t working.  What’s the matter, Guinness?  Tough times mean that you have to lay off the maintenance man?  You customers want to know!

This has to be the wordiest museum I have ever been to.  If you like to read your museums, this is the place for you.  If not, I recommend that you just get the book at the library and save yourself some cash.

Phillippe's

Philippe’s is a little place in downtown LA that supposedly invented the French dip sandwich.  And French dip sandwiches are exactly what they serve here.  According to the website, they have been in business since 1908.  That’s especially remarkable when you consider that in 1908, there was nothing in LA.

Philippe’s is all about “no frills”.  You want a sandwich?  There’s a sandwich, some meat, some bread, and some of the sauce from the roasts.  That’s it.

Even if you’re into hot stuff, I recommend that you watch out for the mustard.  Go easy.  Go really, really easy.  Don’t squirt it directly onto your sandwich.  Just wave your sandwich over the bottle.  I even would go as far as to suggest that you don’t look at the bottle too long because you may develop cataracts.  Trust me.

 Philippe’s is the local spot that has been here longer that any of the locals.  Bench seating and sawdust on the floor make this an especially unique place.   Definitely worth a stop.

The Watts Towers - Originally Published

Have you ever read the poem “Monte Blanc” by Percy Bysshe Shelley?  It seems that old P.B. went and took a look at a mountain in France.  Upon viewing, he has what a religious man may describe as nothing less than a spiritual experience. 

He has an intense sense of connection with the mountain.  On the one hand, he is completely dwarfed and made insignificant by it. However, at the same time he realizes that he and it are interconnected.

This is the magical moment that Animated Meat seeks out.  The moment when a human mind is blown.  And seeing the Watts Towers in person provides just that.

Why does it do so?  Because it goes to work on both sides of the brain.  On the one side, the brain goes into overdrive in order to take in all of the visual appeal of the place.  On the other side, the rational brain tries to sort through the facts.  Simon Rodia was a four-foot eleven immigrant from Italy that spent nearly every free moment of his time constructing the towers.  There was no math and no machinery here.  Not even a TIG welder.  Just a little old man climbing up the side of the towers, all to complete his vision.  

And by towers, I mean towers.  The tallest of them soars almost one hundred feet above the neighborhood.

God bless all of the people that struggle to keep and present this treasure to the world.

Clifton's Cafeteria - Originally Published 2010

Clifford Clinton was a bold man.  How bold?  First, he opened a business that catered to the everyman in the middle of the Great Depression.  Second, he took on the mayor of Los Angeles, the LA Times, and the LAPD.  That little disagreement got so heated that the LAPD set a bomb off in his Los Feliz home.  Needless to say, he was undeterred and as a result, he changed the power and scope of LA politics.  If you want more on that, follow this link.

Clifton’s is like a moment frozen in time.  This is a place that serves the stick-to-your-ribs kind of food that the shuffling masses in the last century yearned for.  Clifton’s specializes in the dense fair that our grandmothers told us would make us grow big and strong. 

The Clinton family has hung in there at the same location with the same menu for over seventy years.

The food is just one thing that sets Clifton’s apart from the rest.  The décor is another reason to show up.  The three-floored cafeteria is set up to look like a cabin, complete with real wood paneling, fishing bears, and a running stream.  There is also a chapel for those that are weary in spirit.

Stop into Clifton’s and get a piece of pie and some coffee.   It should be on everyone’s to-do list the next time you’re in downtown LA.