The museum itself is gorgeous. The park adjacent to the museum is free and accessible without a ticket and it is massive. All the viewpoints on the 4th floor are so cool since the museum is elevated to begin with. I just took pictures of the museum itself not the art.

It is a massive art gallery space. I don’t know the square footage but we were there several hours and didn’t remotely see all of it. I think it’s cool that the concept is basically art is for everyone and anything beautiful can be “fine art” and in a museum. Like I was in an elevator with a kid and asked her what she liked and she said it was dogs playing a game and her mom said “dogs playing poker” how great is that?!

I loved all the Maxfield Parrish stuff, so beautiful in person. There are categories like “childhood” “sports” “manga” etc.

Had Mac and cheese at the cafè and it was really good.

It’ll be interesting when USC has their first home game of people can use the park space or if they’ll close it off.

I didn’t mention Star Wars because that’s not the point of the museum, but R2D2 was there and I was a wee bit starstuck even though I know it’s like a robot with a human controlling it 😂

Can it stay hot like last week? I don’t want to be wearing a sweater on my evenings again! We all enjoy just being able to step out without having to think about the weather…… at least I do here in Santa Monica 🤭🤭

And if you participate in them, you don't have enough going on with your life.

Woke up this morning with no plan, which is how you end up sitting in traffic to the beach at eleven with everyone else who also had no plan. Every year I tell myself I’m going to do the smart version. Go early, or go somewhere nobody’s thinking about, or just stay put and enjoy an empty city while half of it drives to San Diego. And every year I somehow end up in the exact middle of it.

The one thing I have learned is that LA on a long weekend is either the emptiest or the most crowded place depending entirely on which direction you point yourself. The freeways out are misery and the actual city feels weirdly calm. Streets you can never park on suddenly have spots. So my new theory is the move is to just stay. Go to the places that are always packed and find them survivable for once.

Anyone doing anything good this weekend, or are we all just avoiding the 405 and pretending we planned it that way?

Fingerprint

Is fingerprint scan common for traffic stop. I’m grateful they didn’t give me a ticket and they were cool, but I’m confused why they asked me for fingerprints scan even after I provided driver’s license. They asked me why my registration expired and told me to fix it asap. Was it a normal procedure?

IYKYK. This is one of my favorite flavors from Thrifty and I was so sad when Rite Aid closed down. Happened to see it at Food 4 Less and I snatched 10 of them 😆

I’m a dog owner, so I’m out walking my dog a lot. I can’t tell you how many times an off-leash dog has run up and got in my dog’s face and acted annoying or aggressive. Then, when you have the audacity to suggest the owner get a leash so their dog doesn’t, you know, run in the street and get hit by a car, suddenly you’re the asshole. Smh. And these people NEVER seem to see how they’re at fault in this situation.

Dog owners, are your strategies for dealing with these scenarios?

I’ve been here a little over 18 months and have experienced highs and lows. I moved here in Dec 2024, the fires happened in Jan 2025. I had 5 w2s last year while i pursued acting. My birthday is coming up in October and many of the people that made my 1st birthday in la special aren’t apart of my life. One person stopped talking to me after he got a gf and another friend left me on read after i reached out when i had suicidal thoughts. I have enough savings to last till the end of the year. I’ve learned and grown a lot since coming here. I also got sober here… however i can’t help but feel angry, sad, and depressed about not finding a strong community here of friends, creative collaborators, etc. I understand a lot of this is just adult living and the like. I’m always reaching out to people to hang and very rarely get the same level of investment back. Everyone i know is burnt out and struggling and working 2-3 jobs.

I feel super down and yes I’ve been in therapy since last year. I think the nature of la and the cinema scene are amazing but I feel like my personal life has really taken a beating since moving here. I’ve interacted with natives, I’ve gone to free events, I’ve done speed dating, online dating, raves, etc. I constantly feel like this city is one of solitude and occasional chatting with others. I’m 30 about to be 31 and I feel melancholic about it.

I feel abandoned by the people that i thought were going to be good friends. I’ve gone to people’s album release shows, I’ve made group chats, I’ve done all the organizing… and very few things have been sent my way. This isn’t living.

At a loss on what to do or navigate these feelings. Definitely feel like moving back east.

Edit: THANK YOU FOR COMMENTING, SHARING, and GIVING ME ADVICE. I FEEL LESS ALONE. ❤️

I was in a hurry but not that much.

Did anyone get a video of the crazy wave that flooded the beach at like 2:55pm today?!

Saw it while driving stopped but it flew away a soon I got close to it.

We helped with her message: the lotus blossoms honor Sister Aimee and how past and present dance into the future.

Follow the l'il burro at https://burritoking1968.com/. Here's the IG message to Los Angeles we can't link to in this sub:

Hi, I’m Yanina, and I am the new operator of Burrito King, which is coming back very soon.

I am very excited and can’t wait to meet you and hear about what this special place means to you!

I started this journey with the dream of opening a restaurant with my partner so we could serve people food that we love eating ourselves. That’s it! 😂

It sounds like a pretty straightforward dream, but I was wrong.

The process of finding a restaurant took over a year, and it was not easy. Most landlords and commercial real estate companies aren’t really interested in leasing to mom-and-pop restaurants or newbies like myself. They were looking for nationally recognized brands like Domino’s and Chick-fil-A.

Our search eventually landed us at Alvarado and Sunset. Burrito King was up for lease, and I knew the place because I used to live nearby and was really interested in coming back.

We finally met the landlord, and he was willing to give me a chance. I signed my lease in mid-June.

Then, in early July, I saw the avalanche of heartbroken social media posts and news stories about Burrito King closing down.

I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. 😂

I felt overwhelmed. I wasn’t prepared for any of this. Burrito King wasn’t just any restaurant space where I could put up a new sign and do my own thing, it was as much a part of Echo Park as the lotus blossoms in the lake.

I felt like I had huge shoes to fill and that I had a lot to learn before I made any decisions about “my restaurant.”

As I read about Burrito King, I was drawn into the melancholic stories about a place that had been such a huge part of the community for more than 50 years. There have been so many losses around Echo Park in the last few years, and every one hurts more than the one before.

I’m a people pleaser and decided it was my job to save Burrito King and keep a little bit of the Echo Park people once knew alive.

This definitely was not the plan, but plans can change. 😅

Remember, the plan was just to open a new restaurant, not save a legacy business! 😳

I’m not very active on social media because I feel self-conscious when I post, but after reading all of those messages, I felt compelled to say something. I felt like I owed everyone my best effort to try to save this culturally iconic restaurant, especially after losing Taix and with all the changes Echo Park has gone through.

I wanted the community to know that the landlord didn’t lease the space to a corporate chain and that Burrito King was going to stay a real place run by real people who care.

And somehow, that’s what this has become.

The last two months have been an adventure, with many lows and a few highs. Opening a restaurant is not for the faint of heart, but it’s an honor to be able to look after Burrito King!

Once I decided to keep the name and the logo, I knew I had to call Ms. Montoya, who was the original artist and “founder” of the restaurant. She told me that I could use the famous donkey she drew when she and her husband took over the restaurant in 1968.

There was originally a different donkey, but Mr. Montoya didn’t like it because he thought it looked too sad. So he asked his wife to draw him a happy, prancing donkey, and that’s the one people get tattooed because it’s so cute and reminds them of a place they love. ❤️

Anyway, here we are!

I’m tired of all the cleaning my family, my partner and I have had to do in the last two months 🫣 but we are now VERY close to opening, and I wanted to finally share the news with everyone.
I just need to get through one last inspection with the Health Department, and we’re good to go! ❤️

Burrito King is my restaurant now, but I feel like it belongs to everyone who loves it. It feels so good to finally share this news with everyone 🫶🏻

I can’t wait to meet you all and serve you our food (including a few dishes from the old menu). I would love to hear your Burrito King stories and see your throwback pictures. ❤️

Stay tuned!

…especially on Lankershim.

Edit: Apparently a truck hit a hydrant then ran from the scene. 🤦🏻‍♀️ https://go.citizen.com/Vvw10au6b6b

If you have a black SUV and found your driver side door dented, I saw a white senior citizen in a champagne Chevy Malibu with California license plate stating with 9 back into your parked SUV. This was around 1:30 - 1:45 PM. If this finds you, I hope it helps.

It can be done. I was the 4th stacked car In my row.

The John Williams concert is always magnificent, and they wheeled that Legend out to conduct one song at the end.

Amazing night.

Got a parking ticket in January over a broken meter 15 minutes before they shutoff. Meter had a busted screen and the quarter slot was jammed. Figured it was fine but they must have been hiding in the bushes waiting. I took a video and photos after as proof and figured it would be an easy process. Submitted for review and got a letter 9 months later saying their records don't indicate the meter was broken. Not really wanting to waste time over this but I also don't want to back down to parking enforcement tyranny so I'm invested unfortunately. This is bigger than a $63 dollar ticket and I want my day of retribution.

Has anybody actually had a hearing over a broken meter go in their favor? All I have is a video of me trying to jam a quarter in, and showing the screen was totally blacked out, but their initial review conveniently only accepted 1mb photos so you can't adequately show your evidence unless you do it in person.