Entries from December 2006 ↓

I had a magical experience getting my prescription eyeglasses at Hye Optic. I had driven past the place countless times in the past twenty years but had never gone inside. Instead, I had always bought my glasses at Linden Optometry in Pasadena with much expense, frustration and waiting.

It’s a hole-in-the-wall type of shop on the second floor of a little shopping center—South side of Hollywood Boulevard, just West of Normandie.

When I walked in, the woman behind the counter said hello and let me try on a number of frames. I often have trouble finding glasses wide enough for my giant, round head. I was getting a little frustrated after the 10th pair when a man walked out from the workroom in the back. I asked him for help and he picked out a pair of plastic frames, brown plastic layered over blue. They gleamed enticingly in the flourescent light. I put them on, looked into the mirror and saw that he had picked The Perfect Frames. Excellent!

I handed him my prescription and asked how much they would be.

“Fifty,” he said.

I said, “And how much for the lenses?”

“No, no, fifty for all.”

“Wow, great! When can I pick them up?”

“Ten minutes, they will be ready.”

Sure enough, ten minutes later I had my new glasses on and was happily handing over my Visa card. It was the best glasses-buying experience I’ve ever had. Magical, even.

Hye Optic

5112 Hollywood Blvd Ste 210
Los Angeles, CA 90027 Google Maps
323-669-0511

They have a great selection of prescription and sunglass frames, cheapy generic and ultra-expensive designer brands like Chanel and Gucci. I’m definitely going back to get a second pair of glasses to keep in my desk at work. I’m also going to ask if they can replace the lenses in a pair of sunglass frames I picked up for cheap at Ross a while back.

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1755 N Highland Ave (Cross Street: Hollywood Boulevard)
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 491-1000
Twist’s Website

Editorial Description [from Citysearch]:
Modernly styled sushi bar, restaurant and cocktail lounge in the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. Fusion menu designed for sharing.

I went there for lunch (menu, PDF). It felt very mid 90s, due to the primary-colored abstract art but the rest of the decor was neutral and subtle with comfortable textures. Service was agonizingly slow, although that may have been due to our large (10+) party. Free appetizer or (mini) bottle of wine with an Elephant Card.

Things I Tried

Taco-Shimi Crisps, $13

4 servings of seared Ahi, avocado, shiitake mushrooms and wasabi aioli atop a light, crispy cracker. Presentation, texture and taste were nice but it didn’t blow me away.

California Roll, $9

Average.

Crispy Calamari, $10

Crispy, light and tender—not rubbery or chewy at all. Delicious. The first time I’d ever enjoyed every piece taken from a plate of Calamari. Served with a sweet thai chili (eh) and a roasted jalapeno aioli (sublime!). Ask for extra lemon.

Bouillabaisse, $8

This was my first experience with this dish and it made me think of a watery minestrone with shrimp instead of pasta. My fellow diners assured me that a real Bouillabaisse was a treat and that this did not compare. Very disappointing.

Hollywood Cobb Salad, $12

It’s impossible to mess up a Cobb salad, right? I asked them to be sure there were no carrots (I’m allergic) and it came to the table with a great big orange pile on top. The error was corrected but the carrot juice that had rubbed off onto the lettuce still made my tongue itch while eating. Turkey, smokey bacon, chopped egg, tomato, avocado and gorgonzola. The dressing was a very thick and creamy cheese-based (bleu?) mayonnaise-y thing that left a weird taste in the back of my throat. Not very good, I just ended up picking at the good bits.

Pumpkin Cheesecake, $7

Beautifully served with fresh berries and drizzled sauces. Tasty, if a little dry. Went well with coffee.

Viewed But Not Tasted

Lobster Crab Cakes, $15

Looked delicious. Received good reviews from the table.

Pan Roasted Duck Salad, $10

Asparagus, mizuna, savooy cabbage, peppers, cashew and cilantro pesto. Looked nice and crunchy with just the right amount of dressing.

Grilled Salmon Salad, $14

Said to be good, looked overcooked.

Caramelized Ginger Chicken, $16

Half a chicken with (what look liked) a peanut sauce atop skinny white noodles with grilled vegetables and greens. Noodles looked a little limp and (lazy, I know) the chicken required effort.

Grilled New York Steak, $20

This looked phenomenal. Served with a little mushroom gravy, baby broccoli and mashed potatoes. I was thinking of ordering this and now regret that I didn’t.

Overall it was pretty disappointing. However, memories of calamari will keep this place on my list (next time I get a craving).

It’s been less than a week and I’ve already broken my “post a day, every day” promise. Oh well. In an effort to throw myself back into the swing of things, here’s a lazy post: my current “to buy” book list.

• We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah by Patrick K. O’Donnell
• Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris
• Venus Envy by Rita Mae Brown
• Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy
• Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
• The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama
• Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain by Pete Egoscue and Roger Gittines
• Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles & Scrawls from the Oval Office by Cabinet Magazine and David Greenberg

I had the rare assignment to design a print ad for fax machines today. Here are some points I took into consideration.

Decide on your concept

People get two kinds of faxes: business documents and ads. As they are picked up, business documents get a quick scan and ads generally go straight into the trash. Decide on which format you want your advertisement to follow. If you choose the ad format you will need some compelling content to keep it out of the round file.

Be careful of your imagery

Faxes print in monochrome, not grayscale. While grayscale uses shades of a color, monochrome has only one color that is either on or off. (View the Wikipedia entry on Monochrome to see an example photograph in grayscale and monochrome.) Line-art and single-color logos usually turn out okay but monochrome photographs end up looking like blobs. You might want to stay away from imagery entirely and…

Take advantage of typography

In my day-to-day work I almost always get assignments requiring a “hero shot” of some kind. A fax ad is a great excuse to get away from spending hours on Getty looking for another “happy guy on a computer” stock photo. Instead, play with the composition and layout of your headline, subheads, call-outs and sidebars.

Remember the delivery quality

This ad will be converted from that beautiful InDesign-exported PDF into analog screeches over telephone wires. When it comes out on the other end it’s going to look distorted. Keep the font sizes on the larger side and test your design by faxing it to yourself. On the ad I just finished I used 12pt for the small print and 14pt for the body copy so that everything would be clearly readable. Lastly, a small point: Consider whether it will be printed on Letter or A4 paper and how that will impact your layout.

Although challenging, this work is a nice break from the daily landing-page, email and banner assembly. And it may provide a fresh perspective on future everyday work.

MapSexOffenders.com is a mashup of public sex offender registries and Google Maps. Enter an address to see a map of that area with markers indicating registered sex offenders. Click on a marker to get a pop up profile of the offender, complete with name, reported address, crime and mugshot.
MapSexOffenders.com via Lifehacker via TipMonkies

Looking at these people in my neighborhood is very spooky. For fun, here’s a comparison of my ‘hood vs. the small town of Paso Robles, CA:

90027 (My ‘hood)

vs. 93446 (Paso Robles, CA)

I’m going to start blogging regularly again. I did it for seven years and I’ve missed it for the past three. Here goes.