Hawthorne Airport cafe

I’ve been obsessed with airport cafes lately (yeah, I know I know… “lately”) and I finally have a chance to catch up on some of the local places. First up is Nat’s Airport Cafe at Hawthorne Municipal Airport (a.k.a. Jack Northrop Field). The corned beef hash was perfunctory but amazingly inexpensive – breakfast barely cracked $5.

HHR’s terminal building is classically 1970s civic down to the zig-zag walkway shade out front and the big Saturn mural on the side. There free wi-fi if you need it and a small museum on the northwest side of the field.

Hawthorne Airport terminal
HHR corned beef hash

Sierra Madre

Sierra Madre starred in the 1956 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, but today you would be hard pressed to find any seed pods.

Sierra Madre - 2005

However, you could argue that the Starbucks just off the city square is a precursor to more sinister Body Snatcher events (The Onion stupidly went to subscription-only for back issues so to route around damage here).

Though the coffee chain’s specific plans are not known, existing Starbucks franchises across the nation have been locked down with titanium shutters across all windows. In each coffee shop’s door hangs the familiar Starbucks logo, slightly altered to present the familiar mermaid figure as a cyclopean mermaid whose all-seeing eye forms the apex of a world-spanning pyramid. Those living near one of the closed Starbucks outlets have reported strange glowing mists, howling and/or cowering on the part of dogs that pass by, and electromagnetic effects that cause haunting, unearthly images to appear on TV and computer screens within a one-mile radius. Experts have few theories as to what may be causing the low-frequency rumblings, half-glimpsed flashes of light, and periodic electronic beeps emanating from the once-busy shops.

Supposedly there was a Sierra Madre tradition that on Halloween the downtown city square would be decorated with seed pods, but I haven’t tracked down anything further. However the nearby LA County Arboretum does invite kids to use “seed pods” in their pumpkin decorating event so apparently eternal vigilance is still needed.

On the plus side the Bean Town Coffee Bar has free wi-fi.

La Sirena Grill

La Sirena Grill

Sirena Plate @ La Sirena Grill

I’ve been driving past this “restaurant in a house” for months now and never bothered to drop in until now. Who the hell knew that it was so wonderfully kick ass? Fave dish so far is the “Sirena Plate” – a grilled chile filled with vegetables, cheese and your choice of meat. When you can’t make the drive to La Super Rica and need a worthy substitute…

La Sirena Grill
347 Mermaid
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
(949) 497-8226

Someone Set Us Up The Bat Bomb

batbombFrom the same war that gave you plague submarines and aircraft carriers of ice, presenting the bat bomb

It was a crazy way to win World War II in the Pacific. All the United States had to do was to attach small incendiary bombs to millions of bats and release them over Japan’s major cities. As the bats went to roost, a million fires would flare up in remote crannies of the wood and paper buildings common throughout Japan. When their cities were reduced to ashes, the Japanese would surely capitulate … The plan made sense to a handful of eccentric promoters and researchers, who convinced top military brass and even President Roosevelt to back the scheme. It might have worked, except that another secret weapon – something to do with atoms – was chosen to end the war. Told here by the youngest member of the team, this is the story of the bat bomb project, or Project X-Ray, as it was officially known. In scenes worthy of a Capra or Hawks comedy, Jack Couffer recounts the unorthodox experiments carried out in the secrecy of Bandera, Texas, Carlsbad, New Mexico, and El Centro, California, in 1942-1943 by “Doc” Adams’ private army. This oddball cast of characters included an eccentric inventor, a distinguished Harvard scientist, a biologist with a chip on his shoulder, a movie star, a Texas guano collector, a crusty Marine Corps colonel, a Maine lobster fisherman, an ex-mobster, and a tiger. Not to be defeated by minor logistical hurdles, the bat bomb researchers risked life and limb to explore uncharted bat caves and “recruit” thousands of bats to serve their country. Through months of personality conflicts, military snafus, and technical failures the team pressed on, certain that bats could end the war with Japan. And they might have – in their first airborne test, the bat bombers burned an entire brand-new military airfield to the ground. For everyone who relishes true tales of action and adventure, Bat Bomb is a must-read. Bat enthusiasts will also discover the beginnings of the scientific study of bats.

I read the book several years ago and it’s just begging to be made into a Wes Anderson movie. Air Force Magazine has an overview.

Which Creation Records band are you?

My Bloody Valentine
You Are… My Bloody Valentine.

You tend to be a bit distant and reclusive. You are a leader as opposed to being a follower. You are a perfectionist and pay very close attention to detail. You have the tendency to be lazy, which sometimes get’s in the way of you achieving whatever it is you may be trying to perfect. You don’t really care about what’s typically looked upon as the norm. You really don’t care about what people think about you at all, or at least so you try and make it seem. You care most about just being yourself.

what Creation Records band are you? (complete with text and images)
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Landslide

I knew something was up this morning when the Orange County Fire Dept. mobile command post and a half-dozen fire trucks tore down Laguna Canyon Road as I was driving up to catch the train to work. Fire and Water were the last two elemental apocalypses to hit Laguna Beach, so I guess Earth was next. This morning’s landslide wasn’t too far away from the center of the big 1978 landslide. Obligatory GoogleMap of the affected area.

UPDATE: A local blog chimes in

An ironic announcement comes via Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider, the hopelessly vain mayor of Laguna, “An account has been set up for donations.” In her usual clueless fashion it has gone out of her mind that just a minute before she set the value of the homes as “Oh, nothing below a million five certainly,” with no little local booster pride in her voice. She’s sporting the right look as usual: sharp little black baseball cap with the Laguna Beach zip code “92651” embroidered, not stenciled, on the front, carefully formed blonde (of course) pony tail falling just so out of the back, an intense attention to her makeup, and dangling gold errings that set off her carefully chosen black jacket.

Deep inside she’s probably hoping people don’t look too close at the town’s habit of wantonly handing out building permits for homes on 50 degree slopes. That’s been the way it has worked for years in this hamlet that is home to some of the worst art and most expensive real estate in Southern California.