I was pretty amazed when a guy I crossed paths with briefly during my tenure with the Cal Climbing team popped up in the news! Jim Reynolds free soloed a route on Fitz Roy, a mile-high rock pinnacle in the mountains of Patagonia, and then free soloed back down. If you’ve seen the movie Free Solo, he did a route that’s longer than what Alex did (though easier) and then climbed back down, again without a rope. Nobody does that!
A frequent after-work haunt, Bar Franca is romantic, sneaky, and charming. Some nights I feel like I’m tucked away in a candle-lit bar in Marrakech, or a time-honoured relic off the beaten path in Parisian Montmartre. A perfect hideaway from the hustle & bustle of DTLA, it’s never easy closing the tab. If you’re curious enough, head towards the back — a surprise awaits ;)
I’ve been into Butler Pitch & Putt recently. Butler is a small par 3 course located right on the edge of downtown Austin. An official city landmark, Butler was built in 1948 and can be enjoyed by any skill level of golfer. Reason I’ve been loving it lately is we get a group of about a dozen people out to play on Wednesday evenings. We play in one big group and do $10 a man for first birdie. First person to make a 2 can sometimes walk away with $120 for the evening. Plenty of cold Lone Star’s and hanging with friends make it the perfect way to break up the week.
I’m currently prepping for an upcoming music festival here in California called Lightning in a Bottle. It will be my 6th consecutive year going and this year they had to move it to a new location from the previous 5 years. A couple of highlights:
I’m currently into MoveU’s Forever Fix Program! Sterling actually recommended this program to me as I’ve dealt with a few disc herniations in my lower back for quite some time.
The first part of the program focuses on teaching correct posture and developing a strong mind + body connection. The second half of the program focuses on applying proper posture to everyday movements and exercises.
I’ve been on their online program for almost a month now and I’m loving it! It’s really been helping me understand the natural weaknesses in my body and how to correct them without taking the surgical route.
Located on the second floor of a West Hollywood strip mall and with a sign reading “No Trendy Sushi, No Salad, No Veggies, No California Roll, No Spicy Tuna Roll, No Teriyaki, No Tempura,” Sushi Park does not play around. We sat at the sushi bar where omakase (chef’s choice) is the only option. Every piece was delicious. Hands down, the best sushi I have ever had. They gave plates of sushi until we told them to stop.
I’ve had SG Lewis on repeat every day for the past few months, and I’ve been consistently head bobbing to his entire discography of groovy, ethereal tunes that mold electronic and R&B. Hailing from Liverpool, producer & singer-songwriter SG Lewis’s chill, soulful tracks always put me in the right feels. Check out some of my recent favorites:
There are about 400 total festivals during the summer months — Pitchfork, Riot Fest, Taste of Chicago, etc. I'm going with my fiancé to Pitchfork for the third year in a row. Chicago festivals are amazing because they are abundant and in a very short period of time. We have about four months where we can count on enjoying the weather outside for events like this, so we pack’em in!
I wandered into trying Detroit-style pizza in Austin earlier this month after our ‘mini-moon’ (my wedding has also been a recent source of excitement I should add), and I’m a fan! As an east-coaster and typically NY-style/brick oven guy, I was admittedly not very optimistic about Detroit-style, but I’m happy to report that my apprehension was very misguided! We got our first taste at the Via 313 trailer on Rainey Street one night and enjoyed it so much that we ended up eating at the Via 313 restaurant on 6th street a couple days later. I’m excited to find it again in the future, and I would encourage any skeptics to give it a shot!
I’ve been incredibly keen to visit the new Palms Casino and Resort.
Hoteliers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta acquired the resort for $312.5M in 2016 and spent $690M on renovations, the most expensive renovation in Las Vegas’ history. The renovations include KAOS, now the biggest club in Las Vegas with a 73,000-square-foot day club and a 29,000-square-foot nightclub, an art collection valued in the multimillions, and a ton of five-star culinary offerings. The resort also features the “most pools at a resort in North America” as well as the largest LED screen in the entire city at a whopping 270 feet tall.
It’s going to be a fun summer!
My favorite movie theater in a city of great movie theaters, the New Beverly Cinema beats bingeing any day. $8 gets you entrance to a double feature of film prints (35 or 16 mm, typically) programmed by owner Quentin Tarantino. Whether you like grindhouse gore or hardboiled noir, the New Beverly's line-up is classic, campy, esoteric: definitely worth getting off the couch for. Real-butter buttered popcorn doesn't hurt, either.
Incredibly into Lil Nas X’s breakout country-trap single, here remixed with Billy Ray Cyrus, currently sitting #1 on Billboard. Not only is it genre defining, but also defies country music’s history with black artists, with Billboard itself forcibly removing the song from its country charts for claiming that it wasn’t “country enough.” Cheers to a big middle finger to Billboard’s “taste making” opinion and the most 2019 thing ever, a 19 year-old tweetdecker going viral on TikTok with a song that’s turned the music world upside down.
I was pretty amazed when a guy I crossed paths with briefly during my tenure with the Cal Climbing team popped up in the news! Jim Reynolds free soloed a route on Fitz Roy, a mile-high rock pinnacle in the mountains of Patagonia, and then free soloed back down. If you’ve seen the movie Free Solo, he did a route that’s longer than what Alex did (though easier) and then climbed back down, again without a rope. Nobody does that!
A frequent after-work haunt, Bar Franca is romantic, sneaky, and charming. Some nights I feel like I’m tucked away in a candle-lit bar in Marrakech, or a time-honoured relic off the beaten path in Parisian Montmartre. A perfect hideaway from the hustle & bustle of DTLA, it’s never easy closing the tab. If you’re curious enough, head towards the back — a surprise awaits ;)
I’ve been into Butler Pitch & Putt recently. Butler is a small par 3 course located right on the edge of downtown Austin. An official city landmark, Butler was built in 1948 and can be enjoyed by any skill level of golfer. Reason I’ve been loving it lately is we get a group of about a dozen people out to play on Wednesday evenings. We play in one big group and do $10 a man for first birdie. First person to make a 2 can sometimes walk away with $120 for the evening. Plenty of cold Lone Star’s and hanging with friends make it the perfect way to break up the week.
I’m currently prepping for an upcoming music festival here in California called Lightning in a Bottle. It will be my 6th consecutive year going and this year they had to move it to a new location from the previous 5 years. A couple of highlights:
I’m currently into MoveU’s Forever Fix Program! Sterling actually recommended this program to me as I’ve dealt with a few disc herniations in my lower back for quite some time.
The first part of the program focuses on teaching correct posture and developing a strong mind + body connection. The second half of the program focuses on applying proper posture to everyday movements and exercises.
I’ve been on their online program for almost a month now and I’m loving it! It’s really been helping me understand the natural weaknesses in my body and how to correct them without taking the surgical route.
Located on the second floor of a West Hollywood strip mall and with a sign reading “No Trendy Sushi, No Salad, No Veggies, No California Roll, No Spicy Tuna Roll, No Teriyaki, No Tempura,” Sushi Park does not play around. We sat at the sushi bar where omakase (chef’s choice) is the only option. Every piece was delicious. Hands down, the best sushi I have ever had. They gave plates of sushi until we told them to stop.
I’ve had SG Lewis on repeat every day for the past few months, and I’ve been consistently head bobbing to his entire discography of groovy, ethereal tunes that mold electronic and R&B. Hailing from Liverpool, producer & singer-songwriter SG Lewis’s chill, soulful tracks always put me in the right feels. Check out some of my recent favorites:
There are about 400 total festivals during the summer months — Pitchfork, Riot Fest, Taste of Chicago, etc. I'm going with my fiancé to Pitchfork for the third year in a row. Chicago festivals are amazing because they are abundant and in a very short period of time. We have about four months where we can count on enjoying the weather outside for events like this, so we pack’em in!
I wandered into trying Detroit-style pizza in Austin earlier this month after our ‘mini-moon’ (my wedding has also been a recent source of excitement I should add), and I’m a fan! As an east-coaster and typically NY-style/brick oven guy, I was admittedly not very optimistic about Detroit-style, but I’m happy to report that my apprehension was very misguided! We got our first taste at the Via 313 trailer on Rainey Street one night and enjoyed it so much that we ended up eating at the Via 313 restaurant on 6th street a couple days later. I’m excited to find it again in the future, and I would encourage any skeptics to give it a shot!
I’ve been incredibly keen to visit the new Palms Casino and Resort.
Hoteliers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta acquired the resort for $312.5M in 2016 and spent $690M on renovations, the most expensive renovation in Las Vegas’ history. The renovations include KAOS, now the biggest club in Las Vegas with a 73,000-square-foot day club and a 29,000-square-foot nightclub, an art collection valued in the multimillions, and a ton of five-star culinary offerings. The resort also features the “most pools at a resort in North America” as well as the largest LED screen in the entire city at a whopping 270 feet tall.
It’s going to be a fun summer!
My favorite movie theater in a city of great movie theaters, the New Beverly Cinema beats bingeing any day. $8 gets you entrance to a double feature of film prints (35 or 16 mm, typically) programmed by owner Quentin Tarantino. Whether you like grindhouse gore or hardboiled noir, the New Beverly's line-up is classic, campy, esoteric: definitely worth getting off the couch for. Real-butter buttered popcorn doesn't hurt, either.
Incredibly into Lil Nas X’s breakout country-trap single, here remixed with Billy Ray Cyrus, currently sitting #1 on Billboard. Not only is it genre defining, but also defies country music’s history with black artists, with Billboard itself forcibly removing the song from its country charts for claiming that it wasn’t “country enough.” Cheers to a big middle finger to Billboard’s “taste making” opinion and the most 2019 thing ever, a 19 year-old tweetdecker going viral on TikTok with a song that’s turned the music world upside down.
