A MUST DO! A FREE EVENT & FREE PARKING! This is one of LA's Secret Hidden Gems. If you love the…read moremovie Grease or the music soundtrack or Olivia Newton John or John Travolta then you've got to head over to Hollywood to the Grease Wall Mural. More specifically you've got to travel to Wilton Place near Santa Monica Blvd. to M&M Auto Center. Are you ready for some Grease Lightning? DO NOT DISTURB THE OWNERS IF THE GARAGE DOORS ARE CLOSED! THEY ARE RUNNING A BUSINESS HERE - FIXING CARS! But when the garage doors are open which is a lot of times, you can walk by on the sidewalk & take a look without going in. On one of the walls is an Indoor Large Wall Mural of Grease complete with The Logo. There's Danny Zuko & Sandy Olsson in that classic photo pictured on the Album cover. So Cool! And to make it worth the trip on the corner of Santa Monica & Wilton just a few steps away is a Gargantuan Outdoor Wall Mural of the Beatles on the back of an apartment building. Now right next to that is another Gargantuan Outdoor Wall Mural of the King of Rock & Roll Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe & Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now just around the corner near the outside trash receptacle is an Outdoor Wall mural of Marlon Brando on a motorcycle from The Wild One 1950's motion picture. Some really Cool Wall Art & It's All Free! It used to be, you had to have Mega Bucks & be really Rich to have the Good Life, not anymore. The Game has changed. You've been Upgraded. Now You Can Live Like a King on a Limited Budget!

It is a very nice event to celebrate new restaurants made to LA Magazine best restaurants…read more Venue: California Market Center in Downtown LA. It is a nice and clean section of downtown. There are security staff guiding us at the entrance to the building. There is nearby garage parking. The main area is spacious, with food, bars, and wine areas scattering among standing tables for guests. No seating areas. There is a small stage for the Dj. The food: ATLA Venice Baar Baar Bar Chelou Casa Madera Casalena Charcoal sunset Di Di Donna's Hanks LAVO ristorante Loreto Love& Salt Mirate Mr T los Angeles Saucy Chick Goat Mafia San Laurel by Jose Andres Thai Central Cuisine Uchi Yakiya Our favorites: Casa Madera, Di Di, Loreto, Miate, Mr T, Uchi, Yakiya. Price: $85 is well worth, plenty of food, and drinks! I will definitely check out these restaurants. We had Thai Central Cuisine and were not disappointed! I can't wait for next year event and their new list!

Wow, this was one cool event! Kudos to Rolling Greens for the event space it was beautifully…read moredecorated and huge!! Lots of seating and lounge areas. I hear they were expecting over 500 people and it felt like it! Some lines got to over 20 minute waits. Highlights on food/drinks - Alta Adams - Black eye pea fritters - Fried to a golden ball was the fritter, yummy! The sauce had just enough spices and heat. Bavel - Scallop Crudo - pomegranate molasses, citrus, Serrano chili oil, cucumber and mint. One of my fave items of the night. Majordomo - Short Rib Ssam (lettuce wrap) and condiments. Most plates came with butter lettuce and meat on top and you add your own condiments. Then there were the huge short rib plates. They reminded me of Fred Flintstone. Ma'am Sir - Mango moose with tamarind tapioca and honey meringue. Yummy!! The flavors blended so well together. Make sure to take get all the flavors in. SO YUM! Love & Salt - Squash and burrata with honey, brown butter, sage and peptitas. This was a delicious app to start the night. Riboli Family from San Antonio Winery were pouring some yummy Stella Rosa and Cabernet Sauvignon. Flying Embers Brewery were pouring their Hard Kombucha. I got to try the Berry and Lemon. Both were good, but I liked Berry better. Maker's Mark Whisky had some signature cocktails and I go to try the Bourbon and Sand, and Gold Rush. The bartender made our drinks strong! Yum yum! Porsche was one of the sponsors and provided a couple cars for us to get up close and personal with. They had valet parking available. The portable restrooms were some of the best I've encountered. I wish all of them were like that. Maybe we were lucky to be of the first to use them too. This is the 6th annual event for best restaurants. Definitely recommended.

10 star review! No trip to LA is complete without seeing this icon! Great guy! Friendly and overall…read morerad! Can you stay forever dude!?!

Not even good enough for the poor people. Annoying and horrible guitar amateur. This warm is true…read moreto being unbearable and dedicated to selling bunk tee shirts made by anyone

Every year, around this time the Little Tokyo Service Center puts on an sake and food tasting…read moreevent. This year's theme was "The Science of Sake" held at the California Science Museum across from USC. This particular event was to honor Iron Chef Morimoto. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet him.. but I got to taste some wonderful premium sake/beer and yummy food.. like fresh oysters on a half shell from Watergrill.. those things were literally the size of my palm. Maison Akira was there.. of course as well as other japanese restaurants... but the focus was on sake, which I now realize I don't know much about. They had a sake tasting contest which I enthusiastically agreed to participate hoping to win the grand prize of.. a bottle of sake. There were five different types of sake and we're told to take a sip of each one. But the contest host gave me full shots of each.. of which I obligingly drank in its entirety. (can't be rude now right?) Then he leads me to another table with trays of sake marked with numbers 1-5. "Now drink each one and mark down on this paper which one you think it is." Again these are like full on shots! (Ah ha! so this is their strategy...) After drinking mystery sake #3, I couldn't go on.. cause by then things were getting blurry and I knew i was starting to slur.... In the end, even getting one correct, I was left no prize, not even a consolation one.. just a hangover the next day. Good times.

You can find these sculptures by Peter Shelton on LAPD's property on Spring St between 1st and 2nd…read more The six elephantine figures are flanked by two tall monkeys on each end of the promenade. It's easy to miss the monkeys since they're partially hidden by maple trees. You can't miss the large black elephantine figures though. A couple are on their side, the others upright. Too bad there's no sign explaining the name of the piece and the artist. I don't think the sculptures look like "cow splat" at all, as the then LAPD Commissioner described it when they were first installed in 2009. They look more like elephants to me in different repose. Go see it if you're in the area!

This is a nice little pumpkin patch in Redondo Beach. There are so few left that it is hard to…read morefind a good one. Prices are very reasonable. There are a few farm animals and a bounce house for extra attractions. Certainly, nothing like the J.Cottone and Sons lot at PCH and Hawthorne but nice and low key.

Justin Rudd is awesome. He hosts the Long Beach Losers competition. He runs the Turkey Trot. He…read morehas a Book Exchange. He has cool things in his duffel bag when he's not looking. Because he gives to Long Beach, I decided to give back, so my wife and I finally went to a beach clean-up (I've only lived in Long Beach 23 years). We went to the 200th! So, we show up, and a bunch of teen beauty queens (literally, with sashes and all) hand us a disposable glove and a bag. Another hands me a raffle ticket, for which we're instructed to come back in 30 minutes. There's a row of people scouring the sand for trash, mostly straws, wrappers, and chunks of styrofoam and I feel like I'm looking for Teresa Halbach's body. Even though I see a lot of people ahead of me (seemingly a lot of students there for credit, taking selfies), I am surprised I'm filling up my bag. It's exercise, too, because me bending down to pick up something feels like a vertical sit-up. We come back in time for the raffle, and we get the National Anthem, some words from Justin, sponsors, and surprise guest Long Beach resident and 4 time Olympic Gold medalist Misty May Trainor. And best of all, there's free cookies, coffee and hot chocolate from Corner Bakery, and free coconut waters from O.N.E. (I took T.W.O.) and free leftover Turkey Trot t-shirts (it's like when they give third world kids the pre-made Seahawks Superbowl Champions 2015 t-shirts).

Review 250 ! Here's my PSA as part of the terms of my Yelp parole:…read more Once upon a time, I was a little girl behind a big desk having people bring me lunch. And then I was an old girl behind a little desk hoping to have money for lunch. In the process, of the latter, I joined a "club" on campus and was on the quest for community service hours. My Best-est BFF got me interested in getting up before 9am to make it to the beach at 9:45am to clean-up the beach. Truth, I'm not much of a beach go-er so I didn't know what shape our beach was in. Um, the beach, the word after "Long" in Long Beach. So while Ms. Squinty McSquinter (me) was out there with fashion plastic glove and trashbag, a couple of other students would show up and check-in and then stand in the parking lot until it was time to pick-up the community service hour receipt. Bitter? Hell ya. Because all I could feel was shame for how our beach water-line was filled with tiny styrofoam pebbles, beads of blue poly plastic, plastic 6-pack holders, and any other type of plastic tie or broken part you can imagine. And sadness that more people didn't know how to help, or for these two who would show up and just NOT help. (And there you were, standing in the parking lot in suede boots, getting away with collecting community service hours, while you flirted with an equally lazy guy from the club. Trust me, When will know that I'm talking about her and the rest of you can just laugh knowing she's out there.) Here's the blurb: THE 30-MINUTE BEACH CLEANUP MEETS on the 3rd Sat. of each month at 9:45 a.m. at 1 S. Granada Ave. (@ Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, 90803) in Belmont Shore, to help rid the beach of trash and debris. All ages welcome. Free parking, trash bags, gloves, door prizes, volunteer credit forms and refreshments. Now I'm back: Once you are in the parking lot, and after the 30 minutes is done, you can take a nice leisurely moment to look out on the sea, and draw names in the sand, and take pictures of them and send them out with your cellphone. Or just feel darn good that you did something to help. Feels good either way. Hugs, E

Fantastic event, the race has a new location at the Autry Museum of the American West right across…read morethe street from the LA Zoo. The 5k/10k is on the Griffin park trail that goes around the golf course, one lap is a 5k, two laps is a 10k. The trail course is dirty so if you're running for a top finisher spot make sure you have shoes that you can get around in soft dirt. The pre & post race events were fun, core power yoga had 15 minute warm up & cool down classes, & beer garden sponsored by Lagunitas brewery. It was a really fun event & race, cool shirt, medal, goodie bag, & vendors at the event. I look forward to doing this run again next Movember.

One of the the best 5K's I've ever participated in! There was a shuttle to pick you up from the…read moreparking structure to the start line ($7 to park), gear check-in, a mechanical bull, food trucks, and a bunch of vendors giving out some free swag. The course took you around some of the rolling hills of Elysian Park. Water stations at every mile are very helpful. It was a little bit short of a 5K, but there's nothing like that shorter time to make you feel better about yourself. At the end of the race, you got a sweet mustache medal and a plethora of drinks and snacks. You even get a free beer if you're over 21!