It was a not-summer summer day. The sky was milk-white, swirling its chilled brand of gloom over the city. It was so chilly, in fact, that I was forced to wear tights—tights! In July! But there I was in Hollywood in my tights and a chunky sweater and a few minutes to spare, so with teeth chattering I walked the few blocks over to one of my favorite strip malls.

At first glance, it’s nothing special. As you can see they have the three federally-mandated LA strip mall staples: liquor store, cleaners and nail salon. The signage also denotes there is a dentist on the premises as well as the possibility of “pets,” although in this neighborhood that could mean something else entirely. “Cocktail” may be shorthand for a bar called The Woods, which used to be a tiki bar called the Lava Lounge. My friend Emily and I went to their fire sale when they closed down and ended up buying large bags of jungle creature swizzle sticks and tiki-patterned napkins, so if I ever serve you a drink at my house chances are good it will include a pink plastic monkey hanging from the rim.

And at the top of this urban totem pole, the shining star of this strip mall, the only real reason to come here: A cone precariously propped up against a shamrock, signifying the world of Mashti Malone’s Ice Cream.

The sign itself is part of ice cream history. As the story goes, Mashti bought his ice cream parlor when it was called Mugsy Malone’s and couldn’t afford to change the entire sign, making for the puzzlingly-pleasant, Iranian-Irish mixed message. Inside there is a dual personality as well. On one side are all the flavors you would require to assemble a Baskin Robbins-style cone, but I advise you to stick to the far right side of the case, where you’ll find the real gems. Over here, you’ll be entranced by the mysterious-looking starchy threads of “herbal snow,” the earthy pink of pomegranate sorbet, and not one, but three fragrant rosewater varietals.

My two personal favorites are perhaps two of the most unusual flavors you’ll dip your tongue into (but quite standard for Persian palettes). One one side, orange blossom’s perfumed kiss tastes like LA smells in the winter when all the citrus trees bloom, and is studded with meaty pistachios. And the companion flavor has to be saffron rosewater, where the aromatic rose flavor is cut with a neon yellow savory glow. Like a burst of sunshine from a surprising place on a day when you least expect it.

Where to find this (plus how to get there on public transportation) at Gelatobaby’s GeLAtomap!

It was one of those nights that started—as many summer nights do—by drinking wine on top of a hill as the sun went down.

And eventually covered four neighborhoods, four staircases and two buses—all on your own two feet.

It was one of those nights where popcorn was made just for you by a man named Ruben.

Which is, incidentally, the best dinner in Hollywood.

It was one of those nights where you somehow end up in a carpeted, stained-glass cathedral to debauchery, its interior swirling with smoke. A little slice of Vegas on Temple Street.

Where the band played a song that you had dialed into the jukebox at the last bar, and for a moment it felt like the whole world was tuned in to one cosmic playlist.

Yeah, it was one of those nights. (If this is you, I’m sorry. Really sorry.)

It was one of those nights where you ran into your oldest friends completely accidentally and realized that LA is indeed very small.

So small, in fact, that when you step out of that carpeted, stained-glass room, you realize you’re closer to where you started than you thought. Close enough to walk home, down your favorite street of Victorians, up some more staircases, past still-sizzling taco trucks.

So you do.

I’m still buzzing from the amazing response to last weekend’s City Listening II (and the success of the Dwell on Design conference, and the fun of emceeing the LABC’s Los Angeles Architectural Awards…I’m telling you, it was quite a week!). We’ll have a full recap of the evening, including photos, very soon, until then, you can read this review by Mike Neal at Architizer.

But before all that, I just wanted to show you this beautiful photo by Monica Orozco, which was taken at the very end of the night, and take a quick moment to thank my two lovely co-hosts—or as you can see from this photo, maybe three lovely co-hosts—Marissa Gluck and Haily Zaki. These ladies are two of the smartest, hardest-working, most creative forces of nature in this city. Over the last two years they have organized and strategized and materialized dozens of events with huge smiles on their faces and strong cocktails in their hands (except, you know, when Haily got knocked up). And in the process, they’ve also become two of my dearest friends. I can’t wait to see what the future will bring! And on that note, here’s what I read at the event to open it up:  Our de LaB manifesto, in rhyme, of course.

The de LaB Manifesto

We were tired of PowerPoints and panels and pretense
Sick of working the room at lame-ass design events
Tired of the stodginess that came with such happenings
We wanted to know what our neighbors were making

La Brea was picked as an arbitrary line,
But we knew wherever we drew it someone would mind
We welcome the Westsiders, they’re not ostracized
As long as they don’t lie about not crossing the 405

What began as a drinking club quickly turned civic
Our visions for the city became more optimistic
Don’t get me wrong, we still like the drinking
Alcohol is liquid innovation to fuel design thinking

de Lab gets people out of cars and into their city
Introduces neighbors and promotes collaborativity
I know that’s not a word, I invented it myself
de LaB is DIY: We do it ourselves

For design in LA we will walk and ride bikes
We take buses and trains and take LA River hikes
We’re a committed gang of creators who can make a difference
We’re raising a new generation of Los Angeles urbanists

Your support has been amazing for the events we’ve had before
There’s a whole LA out there we haven’t begun to explore
All we need is your support…
…actually, no, we really need your money

By drawing a line through the city, divided
We ended up making it feel more united
We love LA so much it makes us feel giddy
Now sit back, have a drink (that part is important!) and listen to your city

Thanks to everyone for coming and for supporting de LaB!

Update: In all the fabulosity of Saturday night, I screwed up and neglected to post the winning raffle tickets for our eight door prizes. If you were at City Listening and had a raffle ticket, check here to see if you won and email us if you did!

It’s going to be a big, fat, designy weekend here in LA and I hope that you can join me for as much of it as you can muster! First up, Friday, Saturday and Sunday is Dwell on Design, the West Coast’s largest design show and one of my favorite conferences of all time.

For the last few weeks I’ve been writing over at Dwell about all the highlights, including a beautiful tile collaboration between Heath Ceramics and Dwell, a free design clinic hosted by my friends at Architizer, Project H’s GreenAid seed bomb vending machines, David Thompson’s lovely Larchmont Village house, the announcement of a new Cleantech Corridor competition for LA, and an exciting collaboration between Dwell and Arkitip on 10 prints of 10 Dwell houses by 10 artists, including this piece by Andrew Holder (who I was thrilled to interview!). Plus, I got to go to Ed Begley, Jr.’s supergreen house—he’s talking Sunday—and we chatted about riding the bus. He does it!

If all that wasn’t a reason to come out, I’ll be speaking there, too, and I hope you can come by and say hi! Saturday at 12:30pm on the Sustainability stage I’m moderating a panel called Improvising and Improving LA Transit, showcasing how three Angelenos have taken a DIY approach to making the city’s transportation better. On my panel are three of my transit heroes: Dan Koeppel, founder of the 35-mile stairwalk named THE BIG PARADE, which I just wrote about here; Richard Ankrom, the artist who took it upon himself to improve an Los Angeles freeway sign (which I wrote about over at GOOD); and Joseph Prichard, a graphic designer who is improving bike signage, and whose Better Bikeways series I edit at GOOD.

And then at 5pm, same day, same stage, I’m moderating another panel, Watts House Project: Architecture, Art, and Sustainability, about one of the most exciting public art projects in the country, the Watts House Project, featuring Edgar Arceneaux, John Umbanhowar and Frank Escher.

And because I love you so much for reading this blog, I’d like to offer you a special discount on the Dwell conference. You’ll receive $15 off the Dwell Exhibition Plus Ticket (50% off the two-day Weekend Pass) if you purchase tickets online before Friday with the code: DWELL8B

But wait, there’s more! Saturday night, after my last panel at Dwell on Design, I’ll be scurrying up Spring Street to the Spring Arts Tower for our very first de LaB fundraiser: City Listening II.

We’ve got a killer lineup of design writers who are all going to be reading stories about LA, including Frances Anderton on “Living With Gehry,” John Chase ruminating about fun-size Twix bars, Sam Lubell reading bible verses, Tibby Rothman with an amazing (and true) art world story, Nick Adams on LA’s “subway,” Chris Nichols from Los Angeles Magazine, LA Creek Freak Joe Linton, LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, Rico Gagliano from the PRI show The Dinner Party Download, Brooke Hodge, Adrian Glick Kudler, Tom Marble, Marissa Gluck, and letters to LA from 826LA students. And yes, I’ll be reading my annual poem about design in LA. Plus, anyone who arrives by bike or transit receives a very special walking-themed door prize!

We couldn’t have done any of this without our amazing de LaB community. The event decor is currently being laser-etched by Crimson Collective (the same designers who built that giant bird nesting in the center of this year’s Coachella festival), and we’ll have a silent auction featuring items ranging from beautiful custom-built “barchitecture” by Jason King of Somewhere Something, to a walking tour of West Hollywood’s art and urban design with John Chase, to an amazing airplant sculpture by Kara Bartlet’s toHOLD. Plus, I can’t forget the tireless work of our most valuable de LaB community member: Derrick Schultz, who built our website and designed all the beautiful graphics.

We’ll also have delectable Asian-French eats by Flying Pig courtesy of The Architect’s Newspaper, vegan truffles by Nicobella, our well-named de LaB cocktails, and wine courtesy of FORM. And yes, there will be gelato, well, ice cream—did you really think I could throw a party without it? My good friends at Coolhaus will be serving up mini ice cream sandwiches with a very east-of-La Brea flavor: Horchata!

And because if you’ve read this far I really love you, I want to offer you a discount on City Listening tickets as well, if you purchase online before Saturday. Just use delab to get $5 off regular tickets, which include drinks, food and admission to the show; or delabVIP to get $10 off de LaB Groupie Tickets, which include drinks, food and show plus a guerrilla gardening kit from GreenAid, a very good chance at winning great door prizes, and an after party at the Crocker Club, conveniently located below the venue.

Bonus: If you make it to the after party, you just might get to see me collapse after this overload of awesomeness. Hope to see you there!

Yesterday I had to quickly go downtown to do some research for a story.

It was supposed to rain, and even though it never did, the air still had that crisp, post-rain feeling that made everything snap into focus.

I was there to ride Angels Flight, the “world’s shortest railway,” a funicular that was built in 1902. Today it looks like a castle among the modern office buildings.

It even has its own moat.

Angels Flight recently re-opened after a nine-year hiatus. It closed just before I moved to LA so I’ve never had a chance to ride it before.

For just 25 cents (or five rides for a dollar), you can ride all the way back to 1902. It’s a pretty sweet deal, I think.

There are even old time ads to get you in the mood.

And old time tickets.

When you get to the bottom, you can look back up at Bunker Hill and try to imagine what it looked like when Angels Flight was built.

Well, this isn’t exactly how it looked, since Angels Flight has since been moved a block to the south. But you get the idea.

I would say it’s probably the best 25 cents you can spend in Los Angeles.

Last weekend was the LA Marathon, which carved an awesome new route through the city, from Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica Pier. But most exciting to me was seeing how many people were out cheering on the runners; by 8am all of Silver Lake had clustered around Sunset Boulevard, drinking coffee and enjoying picnic breakfasts. I ran into a dozen of my neighbors within a few blocks.

But my very favorite marathon-watchers were these ladies, who were handing out donuts, beers and—yes!—Peeps!

I took a detoured 4 bus to Santa Monica, which served as a nice shuttle to take marathon crowds directly to the end of the race to meet their runner friends. Near Santa Monica and Virgil, I saw this beautiful but slightly unsettling sight: An electrical box spewing its rainbow-colored entrails onto the street.

Also on Santa Monica, I had never noticed this brilliant solution for working an existing vent into one’s Michelin-type man.

When I got to Santa Monica, I was walking down 4th Street when I came across these gorgeous hot pink flats. Walking around LA I do come across a fair number of shoes on the sidewalks, but rarely are they so stylish and so…pink. So I did what I’m sure any of you ladies out there would have done. I slipped off my shoes and tried them on, with the full intention of walking away with a brand new pair of street-foraged footwear. Unfortunately, they weren’t my size.

When the sky isn’t dumping a year’s worth of rain onto Los Angeles in five days, one of my favorite places to go in the city is the bike path of the LA River. This concrete chute is probably the most misunderstood place in all of the city, as well as one of the fastest-changing. Here, in the soft-bottom corridor of the river near Frogtown, it’s easy to imagine what the river was like before it got reigned in a half-century ago, which is also how it could look again in the future.

The Los Angeles River Master Plan was completed in 2007 by the lovely Mia Lehrer, among others, and contains all sorts of amazing ideas for revitalizing the watershed. Until then, there are small victories to be seen. Tons of pocket parks have sprung up along the river, and there’s a string of major rec centers where people’s soccer games echo into the concrete walls. Crews had just broken ground on a new bike path here (the paved one currently ends at Fletcher) and it made for a bit of a bumpy ride but it was exciting to see this part of the river finally getting some solid services.

But as much as I want the river to ease back towards naturalization, part of its strange beauty are moments like these graffiti-splotched walls near Hyperion, which I’d hate to lose in a total return to wilderness. A great resource that illustrates the many personalities of the river (as well as the many personalities along the river) is KCET’s awesome interactive river project for Departures. And if you just want to get a closer look at our riparian treasure, Friends of the LA River leads cleanup walks, birdwatching adventures, and other tours along the river.

A few blocks away from all this is more evidence of the river’s changing role in our city:  The great Coco’s Variety. This is a bike store, that’s also a purified water store, which also features, among many other things, a giant parts carousel filled with all sorts of things you never knew you could live without, from Band-Aids to Mexican wrestler figurines (made in Japan). While we were there, three kids were charged with choosing one toy each from this tower of goodness, and the decision looked excruciating. Keith has some more amazing photos of Coco’s.

One of my favorite stories about living in Los Angeles involves an artist, a freeway (well, two, in fact), an and a time when I had a car, a commute and a full time job. I got to write an essay about all of it over at GOOD: The Fake Freeway Sign that Became a Real Public Service. That’s part of my weekly column for GOOD, Design is a Verb.

In the magazine this month, GOOD celebrates sloooooooooowness, and they asked me to do a piece about how urban environments are designed for the speed at which we move through them. The concept was to contrast a block in New York with a block in L.A. I happened to be in New York at the time and walked to Greene Street, in SoHo, where I looked at and listened to how people—mostly pedestrians—interacted with the street. And when it came to a part of L.A. that was built for reading quickly, it was obvious to me there is no building better suited than Randy’s Donuts. You can see that piece in the Slow Issue or online at Reading the City.

Finally, GOOD’s just launched a project with Pepsi called Refresh Everything where they’re giving away grants to worthy projects—some $20 million worth of funding, which apparently is normally what they spend on the Super Bowl. Check out the site where you can learn more about how this works. They tapped a bunch of writers to contribute stories about projects already in motion that fit with the kinds of ideas they’re looking to fund, and I got to write a piece about the awesome sculpture park in St. Louis, Citygarden.

Sure, yesterday’s de LaB event where we rode the Gold Line extension into East Los Angeles was pretty sweet (if rainy):  We got tours of the East L.A. Civic Center, Mariachi Plaza and the died-and-gone-to-heaven Mexican foodie paradise of El Mercado de Los Angeles, thanks to Metro’s James Rojas. But the highlight had to be the surreal moments when our paths crossed with hundreds of jolly old elves who were parading (and drinking) all along the same route. This beer-scented red-and-white blur—spotted here along 1st Street in Boyle Heights—was part of the annual festival SantaCon.

A valid question in this city, I suppose. Shot from the 704 heading west on Santa Monica.