L.A tips? USC ?

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aydee

Platinum Member
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Hola DW! Its been a while. I'm not here that much anymore, but I do lurk occasionally. A quick question and a non drumming one - to the LA siders.

I going to drop my kid off at USC next spring semester ( Jan ) and I've heard the neighbourhood is rough, though USC is in a bit of a bubble that survives within.

Is this true or just rumor? Any hotel reccos nearabouts would be highly appreciated- hopefully in a safe area. Any fun stuff to do in LA once were done with Home Depot, IKEA etc?

Any info on any of this would be great- thank y'all in advance.

PS-Hoping to sqeeze in a Peter Erskine lesson ( he's faculty there, so maybe dad can learn a few new tricks.. )

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The area around USC used to be horrible. Yes, it was this small bubble surrounded by a terrible area.

In the last few years many improvements have been made, and the area has gotten better. Or at least, the pocket has gotten bigger.

Although I still wouldn't recommend going to South, or too far East of the campus.

Just North-East is the LA Live area, with Staples center, Nokia theater, and lots of shopping and restaurants. The city has made a huge effort to make that area super safe. Although just as short walk east of that is still skid row.

Overall, violent crime in LA as a whole is way, way down. Crime stats still seems high due to the fact the population is huge, but if you break down to per capita, LA comes in under many other cities.

The Ikea is in Burbank. There are Home Depot's everywhere in LA.

As for a drummer, plenty of places to check out.:
http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1262790&postcount=12
 
Thanks DED, that was really helpful and detailed! : )) appreciate it. Some bad news today about a grad student being robbed and killed. Worrisome.
 
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Hola guys,

sorry for the time-laspe appearances here on DW.. but I defintely want to check out the Baked Potato. ANy other places like that in the neighbourhood?

thanks..

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Never been there, but I've heard some good things about the Industry Cafe & Jazz in Culver City, which is pretty close by. It all depends what you're looking for, I'm just assuming Jazz. I don't know LA too well. I played at Molly Malone's last year. It's a cool, popular Irish Bar. Worth checking out. Of course there is always Sunset Blvd and its many venues Like the Viper Room, House of Blues, Troubadour, Whiskey-a-go-go, Roxy, & Key Club (I think it's still there). Not sure if that's your thing though. Enjoy!

One thing I can recommend for a friday night is to take a drive down to Long Beach to the Golden Sails and check out Cubensis if you enjoy Grateful Dead music.
 
Midnite Zephyr said:
Never been there, but I've heard some good things about the Industry Cafe & Jazz in Culver City, which is pretty close by. It all depends what you're looking for, I'm just assuming Jazz. I don't know LA too well. I played at Molly Malone's last year. It's a cool, popular Irish Bar. Worth checking out. Of course there is always Sunset Blvd and its many venues Like the Viper Room, House of Blues, Troubadour, Whiskey-a-go-go, Roxy, & Key Club (I think it's still there). Not sure if that's your thing though. Enjoy!

One thing I can recommend for a friday night is to take a drive down to Long Beach to the Golden Sails and check out Cubensis if you enjoy Grateful Dead music.
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Thank you, MZ,

yea, mainly jazz or jazz flavored stuff. or blues, but any good live music would be a great way to spend a few evenings. Will def. check out your suggestions.

Appreciate it muchly!

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keep it simple said:
I can't help you at all Abe, but I wish I was along for the music & beers :(
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Hey Andy,

I'll have some time on my hands on this trip so yea, would have been fun to hang, listen to music-do some civilized drinking..

Im looking forward to checking out The Baked Potato, which I hear the THE hangout of the top musos of the LA music scene. Want to check out guitar player Michael Landau and Gary Novak, who are there very often apparently..

Sightseeing isnt my idea of fun. ( Depends on the ights actually.. )
 
Hey Abe,

Been a VERY long time since I've posted; similarly I recently began "lurking about." In addition to the Baked Potato there's Catalina's Jazz Club. It's where I saw Gadd, and the likes of Chambers and Weckl, etc. are known to book gigs there.

If you're willing to drive about an hour south to the O.C, there's a nice jazz club called Steamers Cafe in Fullerton. Jeff Hamilton plays there a few times a year but regardless, the place doesn't disappoint.

Wishing you a great visit when you're here (and congrats on your kid at USC).
 
Derek said:
Hey Abe,

Been a VERY long time since I've posted; similarly I recently began "lurking about." In addition to the Baked Potato there's Catalina's Jazz Club. It's where I saw Gadd, and the likes of Chambers and Weckl, etc. are known to book gigs there.

If you're willing to drive about an hour south to the O.C, there's a nice jazz club called Steamers Cafe in Fullerton. Jeff Hamilton plays there a few times a year but regardless, the place doesn't disappoint.

Wishing you a great visit when you're here (and congrats on your kid at USC).
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Derek! good to hear from you... been a while. I've become a bit of a lurker too now.. too much going on lately..

Yea, all those names hit my sweet spot, will definitely check them out ( wife permitting more than 2 jazz nights, you know how that goes.. )
Thanks very much, and hope alls good with you.



keep it simple said:
Time - one of my biggest challenges. Alas, there's no way I could join you - would be fun.

I'd like to visit Sydney too Grea. Never made it to Oz :(
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I can see how that works Andy. Hard to be footloose and fancy free when you're on your way to the Forbes top Ten list of Drum Millionnaires! Would be great to see Grea on her home turf someday..
 
Helloooo folks,

I thought I'd do a quick update on this thread since I just got back from 2 weeks in LA.

1) Its a lot nicer than I was ready to admit- and it is not a place- its a series of places.
2)The weather is to die for. Why does anyone live on the east coast?
3) USC is a great campus, but the rest of the surrounds weren't as bad as I's heard
3) Had a great jam up ( Monday nights ) at Cafe Cordiyal, hosted by Leddie Garcia. It was good to play a couple of tunes with some nice players, and more importantly, check out Hadrien Feraud and some other monster players.
4) Went to pay obesiance to the notoriously infamous Baked Potato ( which is tiny, again -much smaller than I'd imagined- and a real dive )to hear Kirk Covington blast away on his Sakai Drums also with Kinsey, Jimmy Earl and the Snark Puppy horn player Bob something..
4) Went to the Blue Whale, a strange little place in a mall that hosts great music to hear Gary Willis and the mercurial Gergo Borlai, who is not from this earth. Tragic that there's such a small audience for such great players.
5) Great Japanese restaurants in Hollywood and Downtown were visited, dined at and much appreciated.
6) Did the touristy thing too. Visited the Getty Museum, the TAr pits, The LA country Art gallery, the Griffith Observatory. Homelessness sadly is a big and visible feature of LA. One sees much of it all over the US, but it really stands out in LA.
7) Missed going NAMM with some MI people, but all in all, more fun than I bargained for.

Thanks y'all for all the tips.
 
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Hi! Glad you had fun.

aydee said:
Helloooo folks,

I thought I'd do a quick update on this thread since I just got back from 2 weeks in LA.

1) Its a lot nicer than I was ready to admit- and it is not a place- its a series of places.
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Very true. It's often hard to explain that to people who don't live here.


aydee said:
2)The weather is to die for. Why does anyone live on the east coast?

Homelessness sadly is a big and visible feature of LA. One sees much of it all over the US, but it really stands out in LA.
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Well, those two points go hand in hand. Homeless from all over the country make their way to Los Angeles to take advantage of the weather.

Some years ago, the small beach town of Santa Monica decided they were going to solve the homeless problem by giving food, shelter and support to every homeless person with-in their small city boarders, which just attracted people from all over the country. South Park at one point actually did a parody of this.

The result was Santa Monica got over run, so they enacted loitering laws, which then drove all those people out into the surrounding areas.
 
Hi Abe. Glad you enjoyed your visit. It sounds like you really made the most of your time while you were here.

As for the weather, you got here at the right time. I read today that we're supposed to get hammered with rain through February. A storm system called "atmospheric river", or something like that. Can't recall that I've heard the term before. We shall see; they aren't always so accurate with the forecast.

Anyway, glad you had a good time!
 
Thanks guys, a great time was had & yea the weather was delicious! Outdoor air conditioning at its best! Is that why everyone's in a good mood here all the time?! Well, back to jarring reality now-in DC- making sure the car is in the garage before the big stormfront unloads on us!--Miles away front watching the warm glow of the sun settle on the pacific on the Santa Monica pier while the strains of a particularly talented trio belts out some trippy originals!

Ps- DED, thanks for the background to the homeless issue. I can imagine it being a magnet for the rest of the country.
 
aydee said:
4) Went to the Blue Whale, a strange little place in a mall that hosts great music to hear Gary Willis and the mercurial Gergo Borlai, who is not from this earth. Tragic that there's such a small audience for such great players.
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So true, & of so many players of immense talent.

Sounds like you had a fabulous trip Abe. Jealous, although I will be East cost USA sometime soon :)
 
keep it simple said:
So true, & of so many players of immense talent.

Sounds like you had a fabulous trip Abe. Jealous, although I will be East cost USA sometime soon :)
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Thanks, andy. Do give me a heads up if you're anywhere near the DC area. Will pull out something decent from the wine rack, I promise.
 
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