Local traditions and culture in Los Angeles

The interstate/highway system in Southern California can be a puzzle to folks from out of town. Here are a few tips for the visitor that I hope will make your visit much more pleasant. We all know it wil be crazy enough with the traffic you're likely to encounter.

1. All interstates and those state highways that are not surface streets are referred to as "freeways".

2. All interstates and highways that are not surface streets are referred to by their number. For example, Interstate 10 is referred to as "The 10". California Highway 710 is referred to as "The 710".

3. All interstates and highways that are not surface streets also have a name, in some cases two. The following is cross reference with freeway numbers and names:

U.S. Highways
101 Hollywood Freeway (east of the 134)
101 Ventura Freeway (west of the 134)

Interstates
5 Golden State Freeway (north of the 10)
5 Santa Ana Freeway (south of the 10)
10 Santa Monica Freeway (west of the 5)
10 San Bernardino Freeway (east of the 5)
105 Century Freeway
110 Harbor Freeway
210 Foothill Freeway
405 San Diego Freeway
605 San Garbriel River Freeway (rarely referred to as this however)
710 Long Beach Freeway

California State Highways
1 Pacific Coast Highway (not a freeway)
2 Glendale Freeway
22 Garden Grove Freeway
55 Costa Mesa Freeway
57 Orange Freeway
60 Pomona Freeway
71 Corona Expressway
91 Artesia Freeway
110 Pasadena Freeway
118 Simi Valley Freeway
134 Ventura Freeway

A good resource is to invest in a Thomas Guide (see website below). Ask the rental car company if they have a copy they'll lend you.

Someone from Oz had the same query, so yesterday when I was in Miami, I went to check with AT/T, one of the two companies that offer prepaid sim cards. First of all, they are useful only for telephone calls and text messaging. Internet browsing and emails are not allowed. the price is pretty steep when you compare the other plans available: 25 cents per minute incoming and outgoing calls, 25 cents per text.
I have an unlocked phone (majority of the cellphones in this world are unlocked) and i just buy sim card whichever country i am travelling to: USA France India Malaysia Cambodia Vietnam Singapore all would allow sim cards.
I have an ipod touch with wifi connection. i can use it, with skype, to call friends and family either for free or for very little.

Someone from Oz had the same query, so yesterday when I was in Miami, I went to check with AT/T, one of the two companies that offer prepaid sim cards. First of all, they are useful only for telephone calls and text messaging. Internet browsing and emails are not allowed. the price is pretty steep when you compare the other plans available: 25 cents per minute incoming and outgoing calls, 25 cents per text.
I have an unlocked phone (majority of the cellphones in this world are unlocked) and i just buy sim card whichever country i am travelling to: USA France India Malaysia Cambodia Vietnam Singapore all would allow sim cards.
I have an ipod touch with wifi connection. i can use it, with skype, to call friends and family either for free or for very little.

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The Rose Parade is actually held in Pasadena, County of Los Angeles. It is probably the most famous parade around. Thousands od people come from all over the country to see the New Years Day Rose Parade.
2010 was the first time I had gone to see it. I usually watch it on tv every year choosing to stay in my warm bed and not fight traffic and freeze outside. This year (2010) a good friend of mine said that we should go because we life in Southern California and had never seen it. So we made a plan to do it. We left the house at 5am so that we can attempt to get a decent spot. Luckily we had another friend who comes every year, rents a hotel room right on the parade route and he managed to save us a few spots.
The parade starts promptly at 8am but people are sitting out there from the day before. Concidering the amount of people out everything goes pretty smoothly most of the time. The parade last for a few hours then good luck getting out of Pasadena. The traffic is horrible. Watching the Rose Parade is something you have to go to at least once in a lifetime.

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Never knew this existed, and not sure if it is avaiable elsewhere in US but it was only around LA and the Southwest (Las Vegas NV, Phoenix AZ, Yuma AZ) that I found this Clamato beer.

Light in colour as some Europeans might call lager rather than beer, it is flavoured with tomato and clam.

Worth trying for- well, its oddness, but not a favourite. By Budweiser, in Bud & Bud Light varieties, I think I bought it at Circle K or 7-11.

The Sunset Junction Street Fair is an amazing, dynamic Los Angeles event that has become somewhat of a "last hurrah!" for summer in the City of Angels.

Originally conceived as an event to bring together the traditional Mexican neighborhood with the rapidly expanding gay community, Sunset Junction grew and expanded over the years to encompass a nascent art community and an electrifying rock and roll scene. Nowadays, revelers park fifteen blocks from the gates and pay a so called "donation" to enter the packed street festival.

This is as local an event as any in Los Angeles. The crowd runs from "daddies" in buttless leather chaps to young latino families pushing strollers. Fight your way through the crowd and you can enter the beer garden, buy a kilim, pick up a neon bong, and get yo' self a mohawk. Then again, you can win yourself a stuffed elephant, ride the ferris wheel and send your toddler down the slides: this, my friend, is the melding of cultures and it's never been so exciting.

Sunset Junction runs the last weekend of August, yearly. Sunset Blvd from Fountain Ave. to Golden Gate Ave.

Los Angeles has the best radio station in the U.S.....hands down.

Publicly financed KCRW runs a fascinating array of programs. Midday is chock full of news programs, some world(BBC, NPR), and some local; while the mornings and evenings run progressive and innovative music programs.

The music programmers and djs at KCRW are some of the most influential in the world. The station has launched innumerable careers stateside(Jem, KT Tunstall, Damien Rice), and the music directors moonlight as music consultants for films(Little Miss Sunshine, for example).

Combine this influence with Los Angeles' location, and you have gold standard radio. Many musicians are locals, after all. Turn to 89.9, and you may hear Beck, live in studio. Or, Harry Shearer's live comedy/political series "Le Show". And don't be surprised if some celeb throws a coat over pajamas and rolls into the studio to fill in at the last minute.

Best part? KCRW is financed entirely by its members, meaning no ads and no corporate radio. Want local, kick*ss radio in LA? 89.9 KCRW.

If you get craving for some Matzo balls ...come here to the Fairfax District!

One of the major enclaves of Los Angeles is the conjoined Fairfax District and Miracle Mile neighborhood, best experienced along Fairfax Blvd. One will encounter several delis, markets, gift shops and other Jewish establishments. Orthrodox, Hasidic and Reform Jews make up a majority of residents but others do mix into the community. There is a good number of Russian Jews in the area, which is very close to Hollywood and West Hollywood where there is even bigger concentration of Russians.

Come in this neighborhood on Fridays and Saturdays, in the early evenings to see the Jewish community in the heights of the Sabbath.