Something Cool

The music video for Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait" is unlike any other video before. For one thing, it's interactive, and for another it utilizes Google Earth in spectacular and emotional ways. Check it out for yourself and make your own video.

Here's the video I made.

When Bowling Was King

Curbed LA posted this YouTube video yesterday, a mini profile of Chris Nichols who just published a book on Bob’s Big Boy architect Wayne McAllister. He’s been a leader in preserving and saving mid-century modern structures as former president of the LA Conservancy’s Modern Committee.

It’s a nice little piece on Chris, but it’s doubly interesting because it features very briefly Covina Bowl. There are very few structures in Covina now that vividly evoke the city’s years of rapid growth from orange groves to suburban living. Those still standing have fallen into disrepair, while most have been razed and in their place stucco buildings have gone up. Covina Bowl still stands, but I continually think it won’t last either. Inside it’s not in the best shape even though its pyramid entrance is still a striking design element. Nowadays there are more “fun” bowling alleys to go to (Lucky Strike?) but Covina Bowl is a reminder of the days when bowling was at its most popular. It wasn’t just for kids, teenagers with nowhere else to go before their curfew is up, or the parents who were dragged there. Everyone went bowling!

As evidence of what Covina Bowl was like fifty years ago, just check out one of my favorite slides from Charles Phoenix. This woman is enjoying some fine dining at Covina Bowl.

Cities Unto Themselves

With a population of roughly 110,000, West Covina isn't what you would call a small town. It's so big, in fact, that it contains cities within itself.








Wouldn't it be great if Circuit City and Party City merged to form Circuit Party City?

Nice to Meet Ya, West Covina: One World Vegetarian Restaurant

Who would have thought that a good, affordable vegetarian restaurant can be found in West Covina.

One World Vegetarian Cuisine is hidden in a strip mall, right next to liquor stores and tax preparer offices, behind Edwards Theatres on Glendora Avenue. It's not the first place I would expect a vegetarian restaurant to be situated but there it is.

I'm not a vegetarian but I do like to eat healthy when possible without sacrificing flavor. One World satisfies those requirements. The food is mostly Asian-inspired, but there are sandwiches, salads, burgers, soups, and other options. Today I ordered the veggie steak royale with brown rice. Quite tasty, perhaps a bit too much so. For next time I'm going to try the stuffed tomatoes or possibly the fried rice with "pork." The pho style soups also looked appetizing from what I could see at the other tables next to me. The service is wonderful; the hostesses quite friendly and nice.

I've been under the assumption that West Covina houses only big restaurant chains with portions meant to fatten, so it is a nice to discover that there are places like One World. And there's plenty of parking! You can't beat that.

Nice To Meet Ya, West Covina!

Here is the inaugural post in what I hope to be a semi-regular series on the city I grew up in. Considering all the years I've lived in West Covina, I really don't know the place very well. I don't hang out here a lot. I just live here and then go elsewhere for fun.

Hopefully, through research and mere curiosity, I can get to know this city a lot more and see how it has become what it is. Or, at the very least, figure out what it is.

I'll start it easy and just list some of the famous former residents of West Covina. A simple IMDB search reveals quite an impressive list of figures who were born or lived in West Covina.

The Hall of Fame
-Jason Giambi (baseball player)
-Tim Robbins (Oscar-winning actor/director/rabble-rouser)
-Troy Aikman (football player)
-Cory Lidle (baseball player; killed last year when the plane he piloted crashed into a highrise in Manhattan)
-Jeremy Miller (Ben from "Growing Pains")
-Willie Shoemaker (horse jockey; graduated from my high school!)*
-Vince Neil and Tommy Lee (Motley Crue bandmembers; both met at Charter Oak High School)*
-Hussein Mohamed Farrah (son of Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid; graduated from my high school)*

The last person I mentioned was interviewed on NPR a few months ago. Quite an interesting interview. He basically helped intervene during the Black Hawk Down disaster and now is back in Somalia working in government.

*Technically Covina, but we won't hold that against them.