The first bird I saw after arrival was... ... ::drumroll:: ... ... a rock pidgeon 😂

Which was also the first bird species I saw in London And the first one I saw in Tokyo Truly a universal bird!

Good friend + mentor who helped me immensely at GitHub is retiring and moving abroad, so primarily dropping in on his farewell party bsky.app/profile/coac...

Santa Monica Pier was nice! Didn't get sunset over the ocean, but sunset over a mountain beside the ocean is close enough

Hoping to see the Tar Pits either tomorrow or Sunday! bsky.app/profile/bigp...

Lander’s Pastrami sandwich. 7th and Alvarado. Parking one block east. That is all.

💯

Crowdsourced an absurd quantity of recs a few weeks back, have them all in a textfile and piecing the itinerary together as I go 😆 Happy to take more if you've got them though, worst case it gets added to a list for next time bsky.app/profile/fran...

Los Angeles and NYC are the only places I've seen building-wide advertisements for video games And I love it 😄

The level of torment I got as a youth for being into video games And now they've got building-sized advertisements

Having lived through the satanic panic around RPGs in the 80s it's really shocking that now we have D&D selling out Madison square Garden and stuff

Phillipe's is slammed, this place must be legendary

This is what I got... but discovered I don't much care for lamb (first time I had it that wasn't in a shepherd's pie) The rest was tasty though! bsky.app/profile/theb...

Did you get the hot mustard? That stuff is superb.

If you are in that area and want to check out other more foodie places go to the Grand Central Market on Broadway. Lots of vendors and local flavor.

It is. 😀 Try and hit Cole’s too if you can.

It is.

It is, for good reason.

It's the definition of A Local Institution but the locale is The Los Angeles Basin

Cole’s is the better vibe fwiw

Definitely. Sort of like going to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo. It's THE tourist spot.

Lamb wet or at least double dip. There’s a reason it’s been there a million years.

The pickles there are excellent. Cheesecake is really good too.

Oh man! You maybe shoulda gotten Cole's, they're closing in like a month

Phillipe’s on a Dodgers game day is an event for sure! Glad you made it out there.

Stby, going to project a working game of Asteroids on a building somewhere

Yep! Pretty sure yearly revenue for video games is larger than films, streaming services, and books combined. (Don't quote me on that though, I'm not sure of the exact numbers)

While around mid city, if you could find time for a Korean meal or at least a drive around Ktown, it would be a fun experience. LA has the biggest Korean population outside of Korea. Amazing food in Ktown. And if closer to downtown, swing by Mercado Paloma for amazing mexican food court

Phillipe’s for the Lamb Dip.

ok just one then—Chengdu Taste will blow your doors off if you’re into VERY spicy food

I assume somebody told you about Howlin Rays since you’re downtown?

I’m sure the Getty museums are on that list: the art museum in Bel Air/Brentwood (I would go at least for the view), and the Villa on PCH. Lived in Westwood for three years and started law school at Southwestern.

Me Me Me, I'm part of the crowd!!!

If you're going to be in La Brea you should go to Versailles (10319 Venice Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034)

Loved going there. Watching the researchers through the window was wild.

I live a few blocks from there. It's a nice little park, with several museums nearby.

The the Tar tar Pits is so awesome. Please go to Osteria Mozza for me if you get the chance!

And order the budino for dessert!

good choice it’s awesome

@gregdoucette.bsky.social It's been overcast lately, and unseasonably so. Hope you get some of the famous sunshine while you're here instead.

Tar Pits are great, the LA museum you should see is the Academy Awards museum

Also go to Jumbo’s Clown Room and Comedy Store.

@gregdoucette.bsky.social Make sure you take a moment to enjoy the tableau out front of a mastodon getting swallowed by tar as its family looks on. Getting a little traumatized by the highly anthropomorphized scene is a rite of passage for LA kids on field trips.

The Tar Pits are one of the coolest things about LA (especially the gurgling noises that really are voices of thousands of years of earth history). Also, it’s fun to notice that the surface streets in the immediate area tend to be a little tarry too. The stuff really bubbles up from the ground!

Are you not a Tar Heel?

Remember: No matter how enticing any food stuck in the tar pits looks, don't go in after it. That's how you get your skull on the wall.

A lot of LACMA may be closed because they are finishing a new wing. Website will say what is open. If you are a car guy, in the same area as Tar pits, LACMA, and Academy Museum you will also find Petersen Automotive Museum (which is fun) share.google/hjCEIQJg2quy...

The Farmer's Market is not too far from the Tar Pits, that's a good spot for lunch

When I was stationed at pendleton I used to fish at the Oceanside Pier. In 2007-2012 you didn't need a license to fish on a pier. Not sure if that's still true or you fish but it might be a cool fyi.

I think that mountain might be Malibu.

But did they have all their toes? That’s the real question. I am sad to say that Atlanta’s pigeons are reduced to stubs.

20 years ago at my first DragonCon I noticed that Atlanta’s pigeons have very weird feet. Too many toes. Not enough toes. Weird growths. Really distressing sign about their environment

I don’t know about too many toes, but mangled feet are common in some cities and absent in others, and I’m really not sure why. There are theories involving prevalence of anti-bird spikes and/or human hair, but nobody seems to have nailed it down.

My wife and I had a train stopover in Chicago on our way to NYC and the one thing that really stuck with me about the city is that it had the FATTEST pigeons I have ever seen. I dunno what they're feeding them there but they're thriving.

And people say things about urbanization, but absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen was on the island of Hawaii, whereas Warsaw’s pigeons had spotless feet.

It might have something to do with inadequate nutrition? We're told not to feed native birds here in NZ because it can lead to their beaks and feet deforming. It's mostly peanuts, but people have fed them all sorts of random junk food.

My first thought, given the non-native ness of pigeons, would be to suggest a lack of genetic diversity in a local population...?

There was a vid I saw recently of a bloke who spends time catching pigeons and unwinding the hair and other things strangling their toes and other parts of their feet. Dabs on some antiseptic and releases them back to wander.

We need more people in the world like him

It was under heyitstommm on tiktok

da da da da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da

That’s about the size of Long Beach

I was about to say, isn't VA Beach just like 6 suburbs in a trench coat?

Hometown love!