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    Entries in Los Angeles (13)

    Tuesday
    Nov062012

    Video: "Give It Away" - Renee & Jeremy

    It's been a long election season.  And while I celebrate all things electoral and watch relatively little commercial TV, even I would admit to looking forward to the impending absence of political ads from our airwaves.

    Instead of watching six political ads, can I get you and your kids to watch this trippy 3-minute video for Renee & Jeremy's unique cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" from their covers album A Little Love?  It will make you feel much happier before you dive into your exit polls, pundits, and electoral maps for the day.

    Renee & Jeremy - "Give It Away" [YouTube]

    Wednesday
    Aug292012

    Interview: Ulises Bella (Ozomatli)

    For more than 15 years, the Los Angeles-based band Ozomatli have been mixing musical styles from around the globe (LA is the globe writ small), moving people's feet while sometimes addressing some pretty serious topics.  Now, with their latest album OzoKidz, out this week on iTunes and out everywhere else late September, they're bringing their mashup of styles to some younger fans.  I talked last week with saxophonist and keyboardist Ulises ("Uli") Bella (sitting, center, with the uke) about OzoKidz's origins, the difference in structuring their live gigs, and the old Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard.  (And, for a limited time -- i.e., Monday -- pick up a free download of the song "Trees" from the new album at the widget at the bottom of the page.)

    Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

    Ulises Bella: I think... my dad was a classical violinist -- he didn't make it into the Paris Conservatory, but he loved classical music.  So Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, those artists.  But also my mom's poppy Mexican music and Spanish music, which my dad likes.  They encouraged setting up my own stereo system.

    I remember my dad driving me to Tower Records to buy the new Blondie album.

    The famous one with the actual tower?

    Yeah, the one on Sunset.  It was quite a trek, about 40-50 minutes drive.  In fact, they had their annex with the classical music section right across the street, so I'd go into the main one and my dad would go to the annex and I'd meet him there afterwards.

    You had done some kid-friendly things before this, songs for PBS and the Happy Feet Two videogame, but how did you fall into this album in particular?

    There are some songs of ours that resonated with young kids.  "My kids love 'Chango,' gets so energetic in the car," fans would tell us.  We'd do outreach, and some songs just resonated with the kids.

    Then Mario Calire, our drummer, just threw it out there -- "have you ever thought about a kids music album?"  Among Mexican Americans, there's this well-loved musician, Cri-Cri, who's this super-iconic Mexican children's artist.  We wanted to make that sort of album, specifically for kids, but for parents, too.

    Did you have specific goals in mind when writing the songs for the album?

    We did a lot of brainstorming -- should it be themed?  Like "animals" -- everybody writes a song about a different animal.  But in the end it ended up being an eclectic collection, lots of energy, always dacing.  Some of the songs are educational - "Trees," "Germs" -- and some celebratory.  We ended up being ourselves.

    Did recording it have a different feel from recording an "adult" album?

    Totally.  We try to focus on our audience, and tried to remember the energy of childhood.  Adults have to be intoxicated or really let their walls down.  We'd have kids in there with us with the percussion -- they brought a light energy to the room.  There were different subjects, too, more lighthearted as opposed to Ozomatli, which deals with more global issues, heavier subjects.  It really was like kids play.

    What are the differences between playing live for adults and for kids?

    Again, it's about presentation and the energy level.  A regular Ozomatli set is 90 minutes long and features a lot of solos.  The OzoKidz shows are a lot more concise, have a lot more energy.  We involve the kids in every song, as opposed to the adult shows.

    Do you like playing 45 minutes as opposed to 90 minutes?

    A little bit?  Sometimes I'm just getting warmed up and then I have to come offstage!? [Laughs.]

    Are you willing to mix in kids tunes in your adult shows?

    That's actually a hotly debated issue in the band.  We'll play it by ear.  We want to keep the energies separate.  But if one of those songs really penetrates on radio or with an audience, who knows?

    What preconceptions about kids music music were changed? Any proven true?

    One thing that surprised me was the group of artists that have done this.  Why don't more bands do it?  Might not fit their image, maybe.  We're always down for the kids, it's part of what we do.  We all had mentors growing up who said you can do it too and so we're bringing it to the next generation.  I always think it's cool.

    Did anybody think it wasn't cool when word got around you were doing a kids album?

    Not one negative response -- they all said, "That's awesome."

    What's next for the band?

    We're hooking up with producer Matt Wallace for the next straight-up Ozomatli album.  We're on the road every weekend, doing both adult and kid shows.  Touring Australia, too.  We're really excited to see how people digest the album.

    Photo credits: Christian Lantry

    Monday
    Aug272012

    Traveling to Disneyland as a Single Parent

    There are many people for whom going to Disneyland is a lifelong dream, for whom mingling with 50,000 of their closest friends provides a huge thrill.

    My wife is not part of that group.  She hates crowds.

    So when we figured out how to swing a trip to Los Angeles and include a day at Disneyland, I knew that it would be me and the kids and nobody else.

    On the one hand, this was exciting: I'd get 72+ hours of one-on-one (or one-on-two) time with my kids away from all the distractions of day-to-day life at home. One the other hand: me, two kids, and a big public place. I'm confident in my parenting and child management skills (not to mention my directional skills), but traveling solo with kids provides a whole different set of challenges.

    I should also note that this wasn't my first trip to Disneyland as a single parent -- four years ago I traveled with Miss Mary Mack and spent a couple days at the park. We had fun, but I also look back at that trip and see how it could have been improved upon. In many ways, I think this makes the advice I'm about to dole out useful, because I've done the relatively-uninformed traveler thing and while this trip wasn't absolutely perfect, it went better enough that I know this advice is actually worth considering. So, without any further ado:

    Picking a Date

    This is step #1, of course, and one that you may have the least flexibility on. For us (like many), we were constrained by the school year and while we weren't totally opposed to pulling the kids out of school for a day or two for a decent vacation-related reason, that was not in the cards for this trip.

    I heartily recommend Touring Plans' Disneyland Crowd Calendar, which predicts crowd levels for every day of the year.  You can get predicted crowds for the a month out for the next month without subscribing, to get predicted crowds.  Subscribing unlocks the entire crowd calendar, and is well worth the price (which is $0.99 per week, $1.99 per month, and $6.99 per year when done through its Lines app).

    Even if you have a lot of flexibility in your schedule, it's not as simple as picking out the day that has the lowest crowd levels, of course.  Outside of the summer months, park hours are shorter (which may or may not affect your time in the park depending on your kids' stamina) and rides are more likely to be out of commission, either for holiday-related overlays (particularly after Labor Day as they prep for Halloween and Christmas) or major refurbishment.  So if there's a particular ride you remember going on when you were a child that you want to revisit or there's some movie or character whose ride you want to make sure your child gets to experience, you can check the Mouseplanet weekly Disneyland update for and other items of note.  But as any parent who has been in a crowded place with their kids knows, it can be a lot easier to keep track if it's not packed like a mosh pit.

    Where To Stay

    For those of you traveling to Disneyland and without the advantage of a local friend with a spare bed or three, you'll need to find a hotel.  Actually, even if you have a local friend with a spare bed or three, depending on your budget, you may find it worthwhile to stay in a hotel, at least for each night before your excursions into the park.  That's because there are so many advantages to staying as close as you can that investing the extra $100 (or more or less) per night could add much more value than that to the hundreds of dollars you're spending on park tickets.

    I would suggest that choosing a hotel at Disneyland is like finding a house - pick the best one you can afford in the neighborhood you want. In this case, the neighborhood is called "Within (15-Minute) Walking Distance of the Front Gate." (I know, not very catchy.) I cannot stress enough the importance of being close enough to walk out of the park and being in your hotel room, collapsed on the bed, in maybe 10 minutes. Much longer, and the walk will seem too daunting at 2 pm or 8 pm. And, yes, you can take the Anaheim Resort Transit shuttles, but there is inevitably waiting time at either or both ends of the return/departure swing, not to mention the farther away you are, the less likely you are to return quickly. It's like the Disneyland gravitational field.


    For what it's worth, we stayed at the Anaheim Plaza Resort, whose rooms were basic but fine, and which has a large pool (which they define as Olympic-sized).  More importantly, for the purposes of this discussion, it was about a 10-minute walk from our room to the Mickey "compass" smack dab in the middle of the entry plaza.  Most of those close hotels are on Harbor Boulevard, the north-south street that is the resort's eastern boundary.  Some of the hotels on Harbor are actually closer to the Mickey "compass" than the 3 Disney hotels (Disneyland Hotel, the swanky Grand Californian Hotel, and Paradise Pier Hotel) for a fraction of the cost.  What you miss by staying in a non-Disney hotel, besides the immersive Disney theming, is the right to go into the park an hour earlier than everyone else.  The Extra Magic Hours, however, only apply (at this point) to the summer.  It's unclear whether those Hours will continue.  Whether it's worth the $200 or more per night that will cost you, only you can decide.

    But the being close to the resort, that's non-negotiable.  And I know that there are plenty of hotels that are connected to the resort via a shuttle, either their own or the Anaheim Resort Transit shuttle.  All I'm saying is that we stayed at one of those hotels way south on Harbor (easily 1 1/2 miles from the resort) 4 years ago, and waiting for the shuttle to arrive, negotiate Harbor Boulevard traffic, and deposit us about a 3-minute walk from the "compass," took us a lot more time and wasn't that much cheaper (especially when you thrown in the cost of the shuttle) than the Anaheim Plaza Resort.  And it took a lot more effort to get ourselves back to the park after a mid-afternoon break.

    Your Day(s) at the Park(s)

    Here's where I go all drill-sargeant on you and give you the number piece of advice for your trip to Disneyland:

    Set the alarm.

    I know, you're on vacation, your kids are on vacation, you want to enjoy the time together, the last thing you want to do sometimes is set an alarm for a time that might even be earlier than a school morning.

    Do it anyway.

    I'm telling you, you can get so much done before 11 AM that the rest of the day is almost like a bonus because a lot of people aren't setting that alarm.  Again, one of the advantages of staying close by is that you can set that alarm 15-30 minutes later.  We were probably up and moving by 6:30 AM.  After getting ready and having breakfast, we left about 7:35 AM and were at the Disneyland front gates before 7:50 AM to find... they were open.  That's right, they'll often open up early (remember there are already some early guests in the park) so that you're almost at Sleeping Beauty's castle at the center of the park.  This means you can spend some time strolling down the Main Street USA section of the park admiring the theming, and makes getting to the rides that much easier.

    I am telling you, if you do one thing, it's get to the park before it opens.  I assure you, I've done the not-early thing, and it makes a huge difference.  Look at those pictures of Main Street and the Castle above -- those were taken at 7:50 AM and about 10:15 AM, respectively.  On a busy summer Friday.  Get there early enough, and the park is yours.

    Here's where I take a detour and tell you that Touring Plans also offers free touring plans available to everyone, paid subscriber or not.  It's well worth your time to plug in the rides and attractions your family is considering to be must-dos and have the computer spit out a suggested itinerary.  For the most part, what it'll probably do is tell you to get "Fastpasses" for popular rides as soon as you are able (those are basically reservations to do the ride at a later time) and to ride the slow-loading rides quickly.  [Also note: the plan assumes that you can bring back your Fastpass at any point once the reservation window opens, including 12 hours after that point, and well after the reservation window closes.  There's always the possibility that that flexibility will go away (it's my understand that Walt Disney World, for example, enforces Fastpass windows more strictly), but for now, it's nice to be able to go back at 4 PM or 6 PM for a Fastpass picked up at 10 AM.]

    We didn't follow the Touring Plan I created to the letter -- especially if you and/or your kids are new to the park, you and they will be distracted by certain attractions and telling your kids, "no, we can't ride Astro Blasters now, the Plan says to ride it at 8:15 PM!" is inflexible to the extreme.  But because we were there so early, we rode more than half of the Fantasyland rides and navigated the temporary shutdown of Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with nary a problem.  While there were rides that I (or Miss Mary Mack or Little Boy Blue) would have wanted to ride (or ride again), we probably more rides in one day than in my comparatively uninformed two-day trip with Miss Mary Mack years ago.

    By about noon or so, the park really does start getting crowded, and it is harder to find top-level rides and attractions without significant lines.  That's the point at which finding meals and other ways to help give your overstimulated and underhydrated kids a break.  We had our fancy meal at Cafe Orleans for lunch (those are the Pommes Frites above), but Disneyland's meal prices, while expensive, aren't dizzyingly so.  They're reasonable for a captive market.  And while you're not supposed to bring in food, the bag searches at the entry to the parks will permit things like waters and snacks, so it is possible to keep your kids hydrated and nourished (sort of) without having to spend money on every last snack.  Which isn't to say you might not want a Dole Whip (soft serve ice cream blended with pineapple juice - delish!), just that you can use those opportunities as diversions and treats rather than essential nourishment.

    You can, if you wish, leave the park, and on a hot, summer day -- or even other days -- this is a pretty good idea.  We retreated to the hotel for a dip in the pool and Olympics on the TV.  (We don't have cable, so I remember one of Miss Mary Mack's treats on our last trip being able to watch the Disney Channel in the hotel).  Hopefully they're relaxing, taking in some fluids, resting their feet, and just generally "resetting" from a long day (which at that point already included about 6 1/2 hours in the park).  Preschool-aged kids and toddlers may even take a nap -- so much the better.  Obviously, if the park is only open from 10 AM 'til 6 PM, then you might not want to take a break in the middle if your kids' sleep patterns can avoid it.  But if you're there in the summer months, I recommend the mid-afternoon break highly.

    Saving Money in (and out of) the Parks

    Disneyland is not cheap.  Kids ages 10 and up pay "full fare," and those between the ages of 3 and 9 aren't much cheaper.  Our one-day tickets limiting us to the use of just one park (we chose Disneyland rather than California Adventure, which is being overrun this summer by folks wanting to experience the just-opened Cars Land) cost $249 for the 3 of us.  Multi-day tickets and "park hoppers" (which permit switching between parks during the day) would obviously drive that price up considerably.

    That's one reason why I recommend staying in a close hotel -- we spent probably a total of more than 11 hours in the park, and that's something we could only have done if we had stayed in a hotel that close the night before and the night after.  We invested in the hotel (a bit) so as to maximize the value of those tickets.

    Beyond the tickets and lodging, your other major cost component is food.  Most hotels along Harbor Boulevard have refrigerators and if you're driving in, you should definitely pack breakfasts and other foods in a cooler and use the fridge.  Some hotels have free continental, some don't (ours didn't), but my sense is that even those who do have a fairly minimal breakfast, low on the protein, and so it's probably worth your time bringing some.  (If you're flying in, I have read that Vons offers free delivery, one-time, if you sign up with them.)

    As for saving money on food in the park, good luck with that.  Like I said, I didn't think the food prices were terribly outrageous, but they're not cheap.  At "counter-service" restaurants, you are more likely to be able to mix and match meals and may find that a single adult meal may be sufficient to feed you and a kid.

    As always, bringing waters and snacks will help reduce the mid-morning, mid-afternoon, late night munchies.  Not totally eliminate them, of course, and part of the fun of an immersive environment like that of Disneyland is to try the food.

    One way I tried to extend the Disneyland Resort experience without spending money on tickets was to experience more of the resort.  So after we got settled into our room on Thursday afternoon, we wandered around Downtown Disney (the shopping/dining/entertainment district just west of the parks) and the Disneyland Hotel.  We ate at Tangaroa Terrace (a "counter service" restaurant overlooking the Hotel's large pool area), then soaked in the atmosphere at Downtown Disney.  ("Soaking in atmosphere" means enjoying the crowds, something my wife definitely would not do.)  I am very much against window-shopping as entertainment, but the LEGO store has some amazing Disney-themed structures and lots of LEGOs for freeplay, and wandering through the World of Disney store is a good way to let off some of that "gimme gimme" steam your kids are likely to have.  (I didn't want to spend our time in the park itself being in shops.)

    On that note, I'm sure you all have your own rules for spending money our trips, but for what it's worth I let each kid spend no more than $15 of their own money, and they were perfectly happy with that.  Letting them know that the trip itself was their gift drew no whining on their part.

    Another way to extend the experience is through a character meal.  There are character meals in the parks themselves, but you can also have character meals in which a variety of Disney characters stop by, interact, and pose for pictures.  The meals are, again, on the expensive side (especially for what tends to be a buffet), but if your kids are particularly into a character, the opportunity to have a relaxed (and air-conditioned) interaction may be worth the cost compared to waiting in line 30 minutes in the park.  We had a Sunday morning buffet at the Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Californian Hotel.  The buffet was pretty good, Little Boy Blue (and Miss Mary Mack, a little) enjoyed the characters, and it gave us an excuse to go through the hotel, which is a themed wonder.  Again, you don't need to have a meal here to wander through, but it was a nice way to extend the Disneyland experience before heading home.

    Other Tips (and Things I Would Do Differently)

    Bring water.  It seems like you shouldn't have to remind people, but I'm doing so just in case.  I brought water (those foldable plastic bottles that are now all the rage), but wish I could have brought more.

    Bring a small backpack.  What I really wanted to bring was a fannypack, but I couldn't find mine -- maybe I'd tossed it out.  I didn't want to haul around a backpack, which meant my pockets were stuffed full of stuff.  Next time, I'll find a fannypack (or a small backpack) so I could store more stuff, like my sunglasses.

    When they say you can lose your sunglasses on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, they're not kidding.

    Assess your kids' maturity level before you go.  Miss Mary Mack is mature for her age; Little Boy Blue not so much for his age.  Just because he was tall enough to ride Indiana Jones doesn't mean (in retrospect) he should have.  That sort of assessment is especially hard to engage in you yourself have never ridden the ride (which I hadn't), though I suspected it would be somewhat dicey.  In some respects, I spent a good part of the day bouncing between ride types -- a slow ride that would be Little Boy Blue's speed and a fast ride for his older sister -- and telling each of them that they would get to do something they wanted to do next.  If your child is mature enough (and certainly in double-digit ages), you may choose to let them ride via a single-rider line, which some popular rides have and which may let the person ride with less than a 5-minute wait.  That's a good way to let the older child have some freedom ("yay! I get to ride by myself and without my younger brother") without too much of a wait as you park yourself outside the ride exit.

    Finally, remember to have fun.  That goes for you, the parent, too. As parents, we can get so wrapped up in trying to make sure our kids have a memorable experience that we forget to have a memorable experience (and ruin theirs, too).  Have a plan, permit yourself to deviate from it, watch your kids laugh, snap a few pictures, and laugh yourself.  I'd like to think that I did fairly well in that regard.  And considering the kids want to go back, I guess I did.

    Sunday
    Aug122012

    Concert Recap: Justin Roberts (Getty Center, Los Angeles, August 2012)

    I can get so wrapped up in the constant thinking about kids music -- the planning of shows locally here in Phoenix, among other things -- that sometimes it's hard to simply relax and enjoy music. (I do see "adult" artists every now and then, but not as often as I might otherwise if I didn't have, you know, a family.)

    So it was oh-so-pleasant to be able to go to Los Angeles' Getty Center last weekend to see a performance from Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players. It was the first of three weekends of concerts in the Getty's annual "Garden Concerts for Kids" series.

    I can't think of too many nicer places to see a kids music show, and evidently many Angelos agreed.

    There were many -- many -- families wandering around the expansive Getty grounds.  They were in the exhibits, the courtyards, and they were on the lawn that overlooks the Getty garden.  (That picture at the bottom of the page shows the crowd after a number of them had left following Roberts' first set.  Really, the place was packed.)

    Before getting into the show itself, a word about the Getty Center as a concert venue for family shows.

    The weather was about 75 degrees, the lawn is huge, and they gave out lawn blankets to sit on.  Let me repeat: they gave out lawn blankets to sit on.  What drawbacks were there to the venue?  Hm. Let's see... I suppose that if the sun were blazing, the unshaded portion of the lawn might be a tad uncomfortable.  And, um, the nearby snack cart stopped selling ice cream at 5 PM, before Roberts and the band had even finished the concert.

    And that's it.

    Seriously, if this were a series that went on through the year (it's only 3 acts over the span of 16 days, primarily to preserve the lawn's health), it would be hard to think of a nicer free concert series anywhere in the country.

     

     

     

    But you're probably reading to hear a little bit more about the show itself.  After finding a blanket with Lucky Diaz, wife Alisha Gaddis, and daughter Ella near the stage, we settled down through a long set featuring Roberts' many hits, not to mention a couple new songs from Roberts, one about being a robot, the other about being an alien.  They were fun songs (one had a particularly '80s-synthesizer sound associated with it), and I look forward to hearing them on disk.  (Roberts said after the show he's still recording a few songs for the next "rock" album; the lullaby album should be out this fall.)

    The five-piece band is a finely-tuned piece of entertainment machinery at this point, with an excellent sound, interactive hand movements for many songs, and wildly digressive puppet interplay from Tim (drummer Gerald Dowd), Little Dave (multi-instrumentalist Dave Winer), and Willy the Whale (guitarist Liam Davis), who has a fallback career as a Billy Joel cover artist should Justin call it quits.

     

     

    Aside from getting a kick out of watching Diaz and Gaddis enjoying the show with handclaps and accompanying hand motions (Gaddis and I bemoaned the loss of the "trick-or-trick-or-trick-or-trick-or" hand motions on "Trick or Treat"), a couple of personal memories:

    1) Miss Mary Mack singing along with a fair number of the songs.  Just goes to show that even if your kids reach double digits and are out of the target range of kids music, if they've listened to it enough (and it's memorable enough), good kids music can appeal even to the tween set.

    2) Little Boy Blue lost a tooth -- that's how hard Justin rocks.  OK, he doesn't really rock that hard, but I'm going to remember for a long time the look on Little Boy Blue's face when finishing up his ice cream bar (one that required a long walk back to the main courtyard) and losing a long-wiggling tooth.

    So, your takeaways:

    1) Justin Roberts, fun as always in concert.

    2) Justin Roberts' new songs -- good stuff based on one listen.

    3) The Getty Center Garden Concerts for Kids: don't miss.

    Lovely all around.

    [Disclosure: Thanks to Sarah W. McCarthy at the Getty Center for extending us a welcome to the Getty.]

    Wednesday
    Aug012012

    Video: "Inner Child Rock" - Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips

    I'm posting this video from Los Angeles' Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips for two reasons:

    1) The song -- "Inner Child Rock" from their fine album Ultramagnetic Universal Love Revolution -- is one of the more ear-wormy pieces I've heard in kindie music in some time.  I'm sure there are some folks for whom it is ear-wormy in a bad way, but for me, I think it's great.  They could've done a video in MS Paint and I'd've probably featured it.

    2) But they didn't do a video in MS Paint.  The video, loosely themed as it is, totally reflects the hypercolorful, multi-cultural vibe Mista Cookie Jar and his music have.  You could spend four minutes with this and completely understand the MCJ universe.  And probably dance a bit.

    Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips - "Inner Child Rock" [YouTube]