This past Sunday was the 25th annual Los Angeles Marathon and also the debut of a new route dubbed “From the Stadium to the Sea.”  Runners raced from Dodgers Stadium through downtown Los Angeles all the way to the beach at Santa Monica Pier.  Organizers hoped to give participants a more interesting route that covered many of L.A.’s landmarks.

One of those landmarks included Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame which so happens to be where I live.  I had a great view of the marathon from my balcony and snapped a few pictures and some video clips.

It was a lot more fun than I expected.  The energy and enthusiasm of both runners and spectators were contagious and I was often cheering and waving back at people.  At some point, Tim decided to point his powerful speakers out the window and started blasting the theme from Rocky:

The effect it had on people was awesome! As soon as runners heard the theme, they perked up, cheered and smile. Many people raised their arms in the air while jogging while others started shadow-boxing. I got a huge thrill every time a large group of people cheered in unison, picked up their pace, and starting running to the music. We had it on loop and it just made me feel so good to see what a positive effect it was having on racers. It was during a perfect spot in the race too, right after a “pick-me-up” station that was handling out water bottles and orange slices.

Towards the end of the race, when the crowd got really thin, Tim decided to change the music. I cannot believe he did this and I thought it was a bit mean, but surprisingly, most people got a kicked out of it. He switched to the Chariots of Fire theme. I didn’t know what this was by name, but immediately recognized it once he played it. To me, it’s usually used in comedies when the protagonist and antagonist both spot something at the same time and make a dash to get to it first. Then you see them running in slow motion making silly punches and grabs at each other. Here, take a listen and you’ll see what I mean:

I could barely stand to see people’s reactions, but many laughed and started running in exaggerated slow motion themselves. One guy even said sincerely “Thanks for the inspiration!” though I think there was one lady that perhaps felt uncomfortable upon hearing it. That’s Tim and his twisted sense of humor.

He didn’t play it long and soon the street cleaners were upon us sweeping away discarded orange peels and water bottles.

I had a great time and hope they keep this route for next year!

Below are some videos and photos. My favorites include the costumed runners (as Stitch, Kermit, and a PedEx truck).

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Have you seen Kelly Osborne lately? She’s lost 42 lbs and looks great.  The best part? She did it all through diet and exercise.

She can afford to turn to liposuction or hiring an intense personal trainer, but she did it gradually in a way that allowed her to stick with it and eventually grow to love it and make it a part of her life.

I completely agree with what she had to say about workout out:

“After DWTS ended I followed the Bar Method and now I do that three times a week at least. Not every day. I don’t have that kind of dedication. Working out sucks. You sweat and you stick, but then you’re done — and then you see that just taking an hour three times a week can change you so much. It becomes addictive.”

It is addictive! Now that I’m doing the most intense workouts of my life, I do find myself cursing the heavens before each routine.  But once it’s done, you feel great, like you’ve conquered the world. You did it! You got through it and you almost didn’t even start.  That feeling coupled with the fact that it doesn’t take that much time to see results is something that will keep you going and going.

You can see pics and read more about Kelly’s transformation on the FitSugar website.

Note: The Bar Method Kelly mentions is very similar to and has the same concepts as the Callanetics that I am doing.

Was the well-intentioned, 1st Annual Los Angeles Street Food Fest a disappointment?  According to Twitter, the answer is yes.

A Twitpic of the massive lines at the LA Street Food Fest from seeson

I actually first heard about the Street Food Fest on Twitter.  A few days ago, one of the food trucks I follow mentioned that they might be at the fest.  I had forgotten all about it until I realized this morning that today was event day.  I went to the official website for more information and my mouth started to water.

Many of the city’s popular and trendy food trucks were gathering for the day.  They were offering special menus of small bites and keeping prices low so foodies could sample a bit of everything.  All that separated me from street food heaven was a short subway ride downtown and a $5 entrance fee.

Or so I thought.

One of the great things about Twitter, if not the best thing, is the search function.  Where else can one find real-time answers and opinions?  I was confident that there would be at least a few people who would be tweeting from the fest.  I entered a search for “street food fest” so I could get a sense of what the scene was like downtown.

The results started pouring in. Some were only a few seconds old. My eyes widen and my mouth got dry.

People were comparing the lines to lines at Disneyland. LinLorienelen said they were like Depression-era food lines.  Others had waited 40 minutes just to gain entrance to the fest, plus another 30 minutes waiting in line to order and then another 30 minutes to get their order.  What happened to being able to float from vendor to vendor and sample everything?  I was discouraged, to say the least, and then I saw this video from mochipark who tweeted, “If you’re not already at the street food fest, stay away. Way away.”

That was all I need to see (I had to laugh at the person saying “I’m still hungry!”).  I’m not a very patient person, even less so when it comes to food.  As the day progressed, I kept checking Twitter to see if the situation was changing.  It only got worse.  Several tweets talked of waiting over an hour and a half for entry only to be turned away. Yes, turned away! (Why bother waiting that long in the first place?!) The organizers had to nip the problem in the bud, although it was way too late by then. The turnout and demand was overwhelming. Many vendors rain out of food by 2 PM, even though the festival was scheduled to go until 5.  It was difficult for most to try more than one vendor, and the waiting, great Jebus, the waiting!

I hope that next year (if there is a next year), the venue will be larger and the event more organized. Though really, I don’t know what they could have done differently this year and I don’t blame the organizers.  This is the power of the internet and of social media. News of the street fest spread across the web like wildfire and everyone and their uncle showed up.  In my search results, I saw that tons of people were on their way downtown. Did they not know what was going on? Did they not care? I wonder how many people actually use the Twitter search function like I do.  I felt bad for those who tweeted, “On my way to the L.A. Street Food Fest. So hungry!”  Yeah, good luck satisfying that hunger in the next 2 hours. I’m sure it didn’t help that today was gorgeous, sunny and warm.  Strangely, the official Twitter account for the fest was silent today.  I’d like to imagine that those behind the account were too busy spending the day going “Oh. Shit.”

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Wildfires have been raging here for nearly a week.  I can see the smoke and resulting water vapor from my apartment.  Fortunately, it’s not like it was a few years ago where I actually saw red and orange flames that lasted for hours.

These crazy clouds are actually a combination of smoke and water vapor.

This one looks like a bomb was dropped!

I feel badly for all the people and animals affected.  We have evacuation centers in place for people and their pets, but where are those wild animals supposed to go?! Poor chipmunks, coyotes, bears and squirrels.  I hope they don’t suffer much. :-(  Also, we should all be grateful to the men and women out there fighting the fire in this 100+  heat and oppressive smoke.  It takes a special kind of person to chose to do that.

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When we were little, one of my younger sisters had the odd habit of exclaiming “Michael Jackson!” in place of “Oops!” or a curse word.  She would do this when she tripped, ran into something, dropped something or anything else that would elicit a surprised response.  We always thought she was unique in her weirdo-ness.

One summer afternoon, she and I were in the food court of our local Walmart, probably snacking on something barely passible as food.  A girl I knew from my high school, who was a grade above me, was working there and mopping the floor next to us.  Suddenly, Jamie slipped on the wet floor and let out a loud “Michael Jackson!” as she regained her balance.

Having overheard her, my sister and I looked at each other and mouthed “Oh my god.”  We could not believe that someone else besides her did that.  To this day, I remember that moment vividly, and his death today made me think of it again.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson.

The evening news on NBC here in Los Angeles, before cutting to commercial, teased “Eddie Van Halen says he’s being ripped off. You be the judge.”

The subsequent story was about how Van Halen alleges that Nike is using his trademarked red, white and black striped guitar design for one of their shoes. The news then left it up to us to “be the judge” by showing images of Eddie Van Halen’s iconic guitar along with the shoes in question but—and this is a big but—they showed the wrong pair of sneakers. I don’t know which model they were showing, but it was a basic solid gray shoe with a black Nike swoosh and red stitching and a black or gray sole  (I don’t remember exactly, but it was just a basic shoe with SOLID colors). It looked nothing like Eddie Van Halen’s stripey guitar design and would make the average person think that Van Halen is making a big deal out of nothing and is just looking to sue Nike for the money. They also showed Van Halen’s own shoe design as a comparison, which does look like his guitar.

You would think the evening news of a major metropolitan area would do a bit more research. It took me all of 1 minute to find images of the shoes in question, which are a style of Nike Dunk Lows. Now you be the real judge; is Nike ripping off Eddie Van Halen? Does he have a valid argument here?

Here’s his trademarked guitar design, his official shoe design, and the real Nkes that are the center of all this litigation:

Eddie Van Halen's trademarked guitar design.

Eddie's official shoes with his trademarked design.

The REAL shoes in question: Nike Dunk Lows

I think Eddie Van Halen may have a case here, though you wouldn’t have known it if you watched KNBC tonight.

Update: When I was looking up pictures, Tim and I noticed that Eddie’s official shoes look like Converse high tops.  We didn’t think much of this, but thanks to Ace’s comment below, I now know that Converse is owned by Nike! Woah!  Didn’t know that.  This puts things in a new perspective.  Thanks Ace!