Our Favorite Restaurants in Los Angeles (so far...)

Matt and I love to eat out.  Like I've said before, our first priority when we are traveling is where we eat and everything else is planned around that.  Los Angeles is a huge city filled with so many amazing restaurants that it can actually be overwhelming to find a place to eat.  Birmingham has some ah-maz-ing restaurants too but the number of them is so much more manageable to tackle.  When we have an opportunity to go out for a meal here it's always SO hard to pick.  If we try a new spot then that means we aren't going back to places we know are great.  And vice versa.  Such a dilemma.

In our almost four years here we've found a few restaurants that are consistently awesome, and these are the ones we would call our favorites.  If you're planning a trip to LA anytime soon, these are the ones we think you should check out.

Fig and Olive

If we had to pick, we would probably say this is our favorite place for a nice night out.  The food is always perfect.  We both love the trio of olive oils they bring to start the meal (always a different three).  I always order the branzino because it's just that good.  The ambience is great too.

Location: West Hollywood

Type: Mediterranean 

What You Should Order: Mediterranean Branzino 

Lucques

Lucques is the first "favorite" that we adopted.  It's extremely romantic and the interior is beautiful.  Try to sit in the back room if you can.

Location: West Hollywood
Type: New American
What You Should Order: Braised Beef Short Ribs, Soft Shell Crab

Clementines
This little cafe is perfect for lunch.  Great salads and sandwiches.
Location: Century City and Beverly Hills

Type: Bakery and Cafe

What You Should Order: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cobb Salad, Deviled Eggs

Pinches Tacos

Cheap Mexican. So good.

Location: All over LA (AND there is randomly one location in Homewood, AL)

Type: Mexican

What You Should Order: Carne Asada Tacos

Terroni

The best Italian we've ever had. Whatever you do, order pasta. 

Location: West Hollywood

Type: Italian

What You Should Order: Giuggiolosa Salad, Rigatoni Arcobaleno Pasta, Tagliatelle el Ragu' Pasta

Milo and Olive

Our date night spot.  This tiny restaurant seats maybe 20 people.  We always grab a seat at the bar.

Location: Santa Monica

Type: Italian (Bakery and Pizzeria)

What You Should Order: Marinated Cauliflower 

Tender Greens

It's fresh, healthy, yummy and affordable.  This place is a staple for us.  Great for lunch or a casual dinner.

Location: All over LA

Type: American 

What You Should Order: Marinated Steak as a hot plate with the Baby Spinach Salad

Red O

This is a super sexy restaurant with killer food and great cocktails.

Location: West Hollywood

Type: Upscale Mexican

What You Should Order: Queso Fundido, Halibut, Camarones

Umami Burger

There's a reason this place is famous - best burgers in town.

Location: All over LA

Type: Burgers - but not the kind you've had

What You Should Order: The Umami Burger






*All pictures come from the restaurants respective websites

How Islands & Monsters Made Me An Actor

It's hard to believe that Jurassic Park was released in theaters 20 years ago this month.  I was 7 years old and with my dad on a business trip to Lexington, Kentucky when I saw it in the theater for the first time, and it absolutely blew me away - and without overstating things or sounding too dramatic, looking back on it I think it actually changed my life.

Jurassic Park was the first movie I saw where I made the connection in my mind that people were hired to pretend like they were the characters in the story I was watching, and since then I've never truly wanted to be anything other than an actor.  And since then Jurassic Park has been (and will be) one of my very favorite movies.

After I saw JP I started taking a drama class at my church and doing elementary school plays.  Those turned in to high school plays, high school plays turned into an acting degree, and now I'm living in LA as an actor - all because of Hammond's park on Isla Nublar.  If I really want to stretch this association, I'm pretty sure that somewhere in my subconscious Alan Grant is the reason the only sunglasses I wear are aviators.

During college my plan was to move to New York and become a theatre actor.  Ellen and I started watching LOST somewhere around my sophomore year of college, and if you've read any of this blog over the years you know we became kind of obsessed.  Up until that time I really hadn't been a TV watcher (which is almost impossible to believe if you know me now), and seeing the type of complex storytelling LOST was doing on network TV absolutely lit a fire in me to work on that type of show.  So Ellen and I changed our plans and moved to Los Angeles instead of New York.

I used to work in an Apple Store, and the coolest part of being there was getting to meet almost the entire cast of LOST at one time or another when they would come in.  Easily the best moment was when Liz Sarnoff (an executive producer and writer of the show) came in and I got to tell her how LOST was a main factor in my move to LA.  It's incredibly validating as an actor to be able to tell someone so involved in something so important to you how much you were affected by their work.  She's been really kind to me and we still keep in touch every once in a while.  I look forward to the day when I can say the same thing to Darlton and Steven Spielberg.

I'm still waiting on my own personal LOST or Jurassic Park, but with Damon Lindelof's "The Leftovers" in development, Carlton Cuse's "Bates Motel" doing well on A&E, and Jurassic Park 4 shooting soon, I've got enough to keep me hopeful.

Picture Post: Bestie's Having A Baby

Our best couple friends are with child.  Remember Kiersten and Bradley?  So naturally, I, along with some other ladies, threw Kiersten a baby shower.

To prepare, Saturday morning I went to the LA Flower Mart for the first time.  I am officially in love!

And now I'm left with all the flowers.  Poor me....

Our Full Oscar Predictions 2013

Who we think will win

Who Matt wants to win

Who Ellen wants to win

Best Picture

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Lincoln

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Amour*

Django Unchained

Argo

Directing


David O. Russell - "Silver Linings Playbook"


Ang Lee - "Life of Pi"


Steven Spielberg - "Lincoln"


Michael Haneke - "Amour"


Benh Zeitlin - "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Actor


Daniel Day-Lewis - "Lincoln"


Denzel Washington - "Flight"


Hugh Jackman - "Les Miserables"


Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook"


Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master"

Supporting Actor


Christoph Waltz - "Django Unchained"


Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Master"


Robert De Niro - "Silver Linings Playbook"


Alan Arkin - "Argo"


Tommy Lee Jones - "Lincoln"

Actress


Naomi Watts - "The Impossible"


Jessica Chastain - "Zero Dark Thirty"


Jennifer Lawrence - "Silver Linings Playbook"


Emmanuelle Riva - "Amour"


Quvenzhane Wallis - "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Supporting Actress


Sally Field - "Lincoln"


Anne Hathaway - "Les Miserables"


Jacki Weaver - "Silver Linings Playbook"


Helen Hunt - "The Sessions"


Amy Adams - "The Master"

Animated Film

Brave

FrankenWeenie

Paranorman

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Wreck-it Ralph

Cinematography

Anna Karenina

Django Unchained

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Skyfall

Music (Original Score)


Anna Karenina - Dario Marianelli


Argo - Alexandre Desplat


Life of Pi - Mychael Danna


Lincoln - John Williams


Skyfall - Thomas Newman
This really, really should be: Beasts of the Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer

Music (Original Song)


"Before My Time" from Chasing Ice

"Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from Ted

"Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi

"Skyfall" from Skyfall

"Suddenly" - Les Miserables

Short Film (Animated)


Adam and Dog

Fresh Guacamole

Head Over Heels

Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"

Paperman

Short Film (Live Action)


Asad

Buzkashi Boys

Curfew

Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)

Henry

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)


Argo - screenplay by Chris Terrio


Beasts of the Southern Wild - screenplay by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin


Life of Pi - screenplay by David Magee

Lincoln - screenplay by Tony Kushner


Silver Linings Playbook - screenplay by David O. Russell

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Amour - written by Michael Haneke


Django Unchained - written by Quentin Tarantino


Flight - written by John Gatins


Moonrise Kingdom - written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola


Zero Dark Thirty - written by Mark Boal

*Sadly, we did not see Amour this year.  So maybe we would want that to win, although both of us highly doubt it.

Want to see our past predictions? 2010, 2011, 2012

The Nominees Ranked (IV)

Image from here

This year we genuinely liked all of the nominees, as opposed to last year when we didn't think some of them were so great.  As a bonus we got to attend an event at the Academy and see all the live action and animated shorts, so we're ranking those as well.

Image from here

MATT

Features:
1) Les Misérables - Minus Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, nothing about this movie didn't work for me.  Beautiful story, beautifully shot, I just loved it.

2) Zero Dark Thirty - This was a super close second for me. The script is fantastic and the entire movie sets up the final sequence so well it's basically a masterclass in pacing.

3) Beasts of the Southern Wild - Unique, poetic, exciting, emotional.  I've never seen anything like this movie.

4) Life of Pi - I read the book and had no interest in seeing the film, but what a surprise.  The story was gripping and the visuals were awesome.

5) Silver Linings Playbook - Well acted and well written, but something about it felt like it had been done before.

6) Argo - A fun, tense movie that lacked the gravity and importance of a real best picture winner.

7) Django Unchained - At times very funny and at times tragic, but overly long and puffed up.

8) Lincoln - Exactly what I thought it was going to be.

*Amour 

Live Action Shorts:
1) Henry - Old people in love watching the other die is a surefire way to send me over the edge.
2) Death of a Shadow - The most intriguing and ambitious concept of the shorts, and I loved it.
3) Curfew - Eh.  I'm done with dream sequences with corporate musical numbers.
4) Buzkashi Boys - Just too freaking long.
5) Asad - You didn't see it, and that's fine.

Animated Shorts:
1) Adam and Dog - SO cool!  It's Adam in the Garden of Eden hanging out with his best dog pal.
2) Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" - I was surprised at how much I liked this, because I don't love The Simpsons.  It cracked me up.
3) Fresh Guacamole - I'm giving this the edge on Paperman just for its pure creativity.
4) Paperman - Absolutely beautiful, but totally unoriginal.
5) Head Over Heels - A bunch of good pieces that didn't mesh into a whole.

My favorite movies this year, regardless of nominations:
1) Les Misérables
2) Zero Dark Thirty
3) Beasts of the Southern Wild
4) Skyfall
5) Looper
6) Ruby Sparks

Image from here

ELLEN

Features:
1) Zero Dark Thirty - This movie had incredible acting, pacing, writing and directing.  I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and the movie made me incredibly emotional.  Everyone is talking about how Ben Affleck got snubbed in the directing category but I think Kathryn Bigelow not getting nominated is a way bigger snub.
2) Les Misérables - LOVED this movie.  So so well done.  Seen it three times and I'm ready for number four.
3) Life of Pi - This was my Inglourious Basterds of the year.  I had no desire to see this movie and literally only saw it because it was nominated, but I LOVED it.  This is the most beautiful movie I have ever seen, and the story had me hooked from the beginning.
4) Silver Linings Playbook - So entertaining, so fun, so well acted, and so well written.  I love David O Russell.
5) Argo - Super entertaining, but Best Picture?  Me thinks no.
6) Beasts of the Southern Wild - By far the best score of the year.  Beautifully shot and Quvenzhané Wallis is brilliant.
7) Django Unchained - Fun and definitely well done, but no Inglourious Basterds.
8) Lincoln - Yeah Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field were great.  But this was so long and boring.
*Amour

Live Action Shorts:
1) Henry - So well done.  And anytime people with dementia are portrayed in movies I lose it.  (Matt, let's remember each other forever okay?)

2) Death of a Shadow - Cool art direction and concept.
3) Curfew - Good, entertaining, but just meh.
4) Buzkashi Boys - Too long and melodramatic.  Pretty shots though.
5) Asad - Terrible acting and the story wasn't well told.

Animated Shorts:
1) Paperman - Maybe not the most original story but man oh man that animation was so beautiful.  And, can this please be nominated for best score?
2) Adam and Dog - Definitely the best story of the shorts.  When sin entered the world I got goosebumps.
3) Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" - Fun and funny.
4) Fresh Guacamole - Creative but two minutes long and the story is literally a guy making guacamole.  That's it.
5) Head Over Heels - No

*We didn't get to see Amour this year.  Sad times.

Lucy Loves Ponies

Lucy loves My Little Ponies.  The girl could play with them all day long.  Last summer we got her Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and for her birthday last month we got her a set of 12 mini ponies.  Let's just say that she really, really likes them.  And this video is 100% Lucy in a nutshell.

*One day we heard her singing, "Applejack's so pretty, no no no no titty" and we absolutely cracked up.  We kept asking her to sing it again and again, but she doesn't like it when people laugh at what she's saying - so that's why in this video she asks Ellen not to laugh.  Finally we got her to explain what "titty" means, and she said it means "fancy."  So basically the song she made up just means that while Applejack (a My Little Pony) is very pretty, she's not very fancy.

That happened...

I never like when people apologize for not blogging.  I have no illusions that people are waiting for posts here or as if not blogging is something I should feel sorry to others for.  Since the beginning, we have kept this blog for ourselves, and I love looking back at old posts from when we first got married. SO much has changed and we have grown so much.

This blog, and I'd be willing to bet most personal blogs, do a pretty terrible job of showing what our lives are really like.  What preoccupies our minds, what we are planning for, and what our days really look like.  A lot of that has to do with the fact that I do not have a way with words and I have never enjoyed writing or been all that good at it.

But when I look back at old posts, I know what was going on during those times and it brings back a flood of memories that only Matt and I really know about.  And I kind of love that.  Who knows how long we will keep this up but so far, I like being able to look back through the archives and remember things I would have easily forgotten if it wasn't for this space.

All that said, we haven't blogged very much at all recently.  This is mostly due to the fact that my new job keeps me incredibly busy and when I come home all I want to do is sit with Matt on the couch, eat dinner, and catch up with the DVR.  But since I last posted, this happened:

We decorated our place for Christmas.  We were able to go home to Birmingham for Christmas for the first time since we moved to Los Angeles in 2009, so we just got a little tree from Lowes.  Nothing crazy as we wouldn't be here the day of.  But I have to say, this might be my favorite tree we ever had. Maybe it was the au natural color scheme?

Like I already mentioned, I ended my days with Pacific Crossroads Church and started with Sugar Paper mid December. I've really liked the challenge of a new job but it has definitely been busy!  Being in a new and creative environment makes it all worth it.  Check out their pretty holiday party decorations.  So pretty!:

Then, it was home for the holidays.  It was good to see all our family and friends and have a week long break.

Matt and I have each celebrated birthdays too.  Let's just say I can rent a car now!

And then we spent New Year's Eve with some of our favorite people, Kiersten and Bradley.  Bradley's pajamas are nicer than ours.

And of course now that it's awards season we've been watching all the nominated films.  Oscar blog post to come...

A Quiet, Claustrophobic Weekend

The other day I watched The Avengers - which everybody on the planet thought was the greatest thing ever - and I really hated it.  It got me thinking about the types of movies I'm personally drawn to, and while I do enjoy big action movies (as long as they're not full of superheroes), I tend to really respond to smaller, inventive, genre films.  If your movie takes place in only one location, you've got my attention.  While it can be used as a gimmick, when done well the one location film forces everyone to be more creative - the actors, editor, cinematographer, director, really everybody.  Here's some of my favorite movies that never (or almost never) change location.

Buried

Ryan Reynolds (I know what you're thinking, but he's actually really good in this) wakes up in a coffin, and the entire story unfolds without ever leaving said coffin.  I squirmed the whole time.

Right At Your Door

A couple living in Los Angeles is separated when a dirty bomb is detonated downtown.  The main conflict of the movie is the infected wife trying to convince her husband to let her in the house.  Long scenes take place with just the two of them talking through the door, and it's pretty awesome.

Frozen

3 friends get stuck on a ski lift over the weekend, and horror ensues.  How many different ways can you shoot a stationary ski lift chair?  This cinematographer figures out a whole bunch.

Rope

A dinner party thrown by an egocentric sociopath with dinner served on the chest in which he's hidden his most recent murder victim?  Sounds good to me.  Also, Jimmy Stewart is the man.

12 Angry Men

Lots of stress when jurors don't agree.  You've seen this movie, right?

Pontypool

I saved my favorite for last.  Pontypool is a Canadian film that takes place during an early morning talk radio show.  Through phone calls from their traffic correspondent and various townspeople, the DJ and his two producers witness an epidemic that quickly wipes out their town and maybe the world.  I can't give away too much of this movie because you need to be surprised, but trust me.  It's so well acted by Stephen McHattie and so well directed by Bruce McDonald I don't know how you won't love it.  Watch through the end credits.

If you're bored this weekend and feel like some claustrophobia, check out some of these movies and let me know what you think.

New Job: Sugar Paper

found here

It all started with a tweet...

And now I have an awesome new job with Sugar Paper where my Type A side and my Type B side can coexist happily.

 It's all just so pretty isn't it?

Anniversary Confetti Card

Hello Darling Print

Reversible Wrap - Sunshine Yellow

San Fran, or The Trip Where Ellen Threw Up So Hard A French Fry Came Out Of Her Nose

Back in October (yes, that's how far behind we are) we went with my parents to San Francisco.  My parents and Ellen were pretty familiar with the city, but I hadn't been since I was a little kid so we had to hit up some tourist attractions for my sake.  City Lights Bookstore, Muir Woods, and yes...Alcatraz:

Now, let's talk for a minute about the food we ate: It was really great*.  But I'd rather focus on when that food made a special encore performance in our hotel room.  We thought the show was over, but it wanted to make a second appearance.

Ellen gets motion sick very easily, so maybe it was a combination of the ferry to Alcatraz and lots of very curvy roads.  Or maybe it was the dinner we ate that night.  The waitress, in a jealous rage brought on by Ellen's pure beauty, poisoned her food to cut her down to size.  No one can be sure what caused the Great French Fry Incident of 2012, but let me assure you no one had any fun aprés-dinner.

We got back to the room and Ellen was feeling a little sick.  That quickly deteriorated into something much worse.  I'll spare you the gory details, but another hour or so later her stomach was empty.  She literally threw up so hard that an intact french fry shot out of her nose.  That part was actually sort of awesome.

Pretty pictures!

We went on the busiest weekend of the year.  Fleet Week, the Rock 'n Roll Marathon, the America's Cup sailboat race, and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival all converged on the same weekend, so the city itself was packed.  But we got to see one of our favorite bands, The Lumineers, at the HSB Festival for FREE.

You can't beat that.

*For the foodies out there, this is where we ate (all very good): Anchor and Hope, Tartine Bakery, Ella's, Pizzeria Delphina