Week in Retrospect: Childhood Lost

ice cream cone abandoned in a parking lot

I was born in El Monte, roughly 20 minutes east of Downtown Los Angeles (when there isn't traffic!) and lived resided there for the first 22 years of my life. Every week we would go to Thrifty (long before it became Rite-Aid) for hand-packed pints of ice cream. It was just a few streets down from our house and I used to love the novelty of their cylindrical ice cream scoops. The favorites in our household were butter pecan and pineapple coconut, although my personal favorite back then was mint chip. Thrifty's ice cream isn't the best in the world but it's good for the price. The factory was just about 5 miles from our house, so we had a bit of pride in supporting a local business…especially since it was the only thing to be proud of in El Monte. I miss those days.

Five weeks have passed since I started my final semester of my undergraduate career. And it's starting to really hit me right about…NOW. Soon enough, I'll have to start worrying about the real responsibilities of growing up: constantly having an income, what my job means to me, putting a roof over my head, working out relationships (with family, friends, and significant others) around work schedules…But on the other hand, I'm ready to get back to a life that I've missed. I want to go back to having time to read and to enjoy the hobbies I've abandoned because there's never enough time. I want to spend time with the people who really matter and let them know I haven't forgotten about them.

This is all coming very quickly. I've spent most of the week listening to what would've been on my mixtapes back in the mid-90s. At one point, I felt like I was blasting the Lilith Fair lineup…minus Sarah MacLachlan. I've come to realize just how much I love Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily; I could just listen to it for days!

Now with just ten weeks left of the semester, there just never seems to be enough time to get everything done. There's nothing left to do but to suck it up and just get to it…and get through it.

Song of the Week: Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself

Just a day or two ago, my best friend Nisa messaged me just to let me know that she had been listening to Morrissey all day. She said it was bumming her out, but she couldn't stop listening. We laughed although we felt like we were laughing at something that shouldn't be funny. We reminisced about our high school years and how 8 years later, not much has changed. We're still chasing our ideals and looking far & wide for some deeper meaning to life knowing that we may never find it…and we're ok with that.

Weekend Food Recap

The weekend started Friday with a pretty chill day at work. We were getting ready for PROJECT and (capsule) this week in Las Vegas. Instead of spending the day at the computers, we were running errands and mocking up new packaging. When it came time for lunch, we stopped by Cream Pan where I picked up this delicious Tonkatsu Sandwich. Tonkatsu is one of my favorite things in the world and for those who are unfamiliar with it, it's panko-breaded fried pork cutlet. But what made this sandwich awesome where the combination of the cucumbers, tomato, cabbage, lettuce, and dressing. It was the perfect refreshing contrast to the meaty fried goodness.

And of course, I had to follow that with some delicious dessert. Cream Pan is known for their strawberry croissants. They're light and airy croissants filled with vanilla custard & sliced strawberry. It was the perfect balance of flakey outside and gooey inside.

After work, I met up with Kevin and we went to Zankou for dinner. Just our typical run of the mill Friday. The only thing missing was a trip to Vroman's. But we started our night a little late so we couldn't make it to Vroman's before they closed. Kevin wanted to try out some new places together so he suggested a trip to D'odici. He was telling me about some of the great cheesecake he had from them recently. So we stopped by and I had every intention to get one of their souffle cheesecakes…until I saw their array of mousse cheesecakes. I totally went for the blueberry one and never looked back.

Saturday rolled around and my best friend Nisa was celebrating her 26th birthday. Due to extremely poor timing (thanks to my haircut taking longer than expected), I was only able to stop by her birthday barbeque for an hour before I had to head off to work. Lucky for me, the party was still going afterwards. I met up with her and her boyfriend after his band's performance at a local space in Highland Park. Tacos sounded like a really good idea at the time. And what better for tacos than La Estrella. The Highland Park location is a permanently parked taco truck but they have regular brick & mortar restaurants in Pasadena. I got my usual 3 asada tacos. YUM!

Most of my Sunday was pretty sluggish. I worked two days in a row at Leanna Lin's Wonderland because it was a weekend full of Valentine's Day related events. Afterwards, I was totally famished and met up with Kevin to go to The Coffee Table. But we changed our minds on the way there and ended up at Four Cafe instead. What I love about Four Cafe is that they have a different menu every season. So far, their Summer and Fall menus are my favorite. We ended up getting the Italian sausage soup and the short rib grilled cheese. Everything was good, but definitely not my favorite thing I've ever had from them. Part of me wished we had walked a block down to The Coffee Table.

Song of the Week: Sweet Darlin' – She & Him

Happy Lunar New Year!

Hanging Out with Aesthetic Apparatus

Today was just a continuation of yesterday's awesomeness when we decided to drop in on the guys at Aesthetic Apparatus.

As you enter the space, the entire front of the studio is a shop where you can buy any of their goodies. It's entirely open to the public but they recommend calling ahead of time just to make sure they're in.

It's hard to believe that they're just a three man team made up of Dan Ibarra, Michael Byzewski, and Jonathan Schuster. Dan hung out with us while Michael was getting ready for their client meeting at 3PM and Jonathan was in the studio doing some prints. We asked Dan about his thoughts on the design community in Minneapolis. He talked about the how it's not too small but not too big. It's just the right size which is why it's very close-knit. 

They're a very humble studio. And they'll have a conversation with you almost like an old friend. While talking with Dan, it's very easy to forget about all the awards they've won and all their big-name clients. Dan was telling us a bit about how sometimes they don't know what clients want from them anymore. Are they graphic design? Or are they printmaking? (And this is all while I'm staring at their D&AD Award on the shelf.) 

Aesthetic Apparatus is also fueled by Dogwood Coffee. Anyone else noticing a trend here? They recently worked on some mugs for Dogwood and got some coffee & appliances in exchange. According to Dan,"The guy at Dogwood takes his coffee seriously. He even gave us a scale so we can weigh our beans to the exact weight for brewing." 

After talking up a storm about Dogwood, Dan led us into the studio where all the messy magic happens. Now this is the kind of messy printmaking studio we're used to! The space is actually a lot smaller than I expected. But it explains why the three of them work just perfectly!

Dan let us take a little peek at what they're currently working on. Every year (for the past 3 years), they print limited edition Chinese New Year labels for Andrews & Dunham tea. So here's the Year of the Dragon:

Before they sent us on our way, we stood around for another 10 – 15 minutes talking about food. We mentioned how we went to both 5-8 Club and Matt's Bar for juicy lucys/jucy lucys. They asked us which was our fave, and our vote was for Matt's. Dan then responded, "Good. Looks like you chose the right team." The Aesthetic Apparatus guys also favor Matt's and then suggested we take a trip to the Triple Rock Social Club for the Cook's Revenge. Your only choices are Meat or Vegetarian and you essentially have no clue what you're going to get. But Dan reassured us that 95% of the time, you will get something awesome.

My only regret about this studio visit: not taking a picture of this 400 lb. matador lamp that Dan had transferred from his home to the studio. That matador had a look of serious business on his face as he has kept bulls away from the studio. 

Dan, Michael, and Jonathan are quite possibly the nicest & coolest guys I've ever met. Next time you're in Minneapolis, I definitely recommend giving them a call and stopping by.

Special thanks to them for letting us distract them from work!

This Old Gem

Earlier this evening I decided to log into my StumbleUpon account after abandoning it for over a year. One of my favorite things saved was this photo of Leonard Nimoy as Spock with a Buick Riviera.

An Afternoon with Studio On Fire

While in Minneapolis, I thought to myself "Which studios would I like to see?" and more importantly, "Who wouldn't mind having us?" I contacted Studio On Fire since I was in Gallery Nucleus' Illustrated Type show with them last May. Ben Levitz, the Principal & Design Director, warmly welcomed us into the shop. 

Upon entering, there's an entire corner to the left that exhibits samples of (almost) all of their work from over the years.

The sample wall

Business cards

The Chandler & Price that started it all…

Ben first started off with just this one pedal-powered C&P. Today, the shop is made up of 13 employees including a crew whose sole responsibility is to keep the presses well-oiled and maintained.

Quite possibly the cleanest printshop I've ever seen.

Not only do they do letterpress printing in-house, they also die-cut and make plates in-house. They also use paper stocks from a local distributor. I just love how everything is done in-house and all their supplies are from local suppliers. Also coincidentally, the entire staff of Studio On Fire is fueled by Dogwood Coffee. Ben just happens to be friends with the folks at Dogwood and Studio On Fire printed their packaging. 

If you own one of their larger prints, it was printed on one of these Heidelbergs. They don't just have one…they have two of these in the shop. Fortunately for them, they know a local mechanic (who has over 30 years of experience with Heidelberg presses) who checks on their presses at least once a year. 

More sample work

The folks over at Studio On Fire are just so much fun to hang out with. And they're always doing such awesome work!

Special thanks to Ben & the crew for having us! You can see what they're up to these days over at Beast Pieces.

Things I've Purchased (So Far)

My brother's apartment is by far the most poorly lit living space I've ever been in. The most well lit place in his entire apartment is the tiny hallway where two closets connect the master bedroom to the master bathroom. (So I apologize for the bad photo.)

I've been enjoying myself in Minneapolis and have been shopping way more than I had originally planned. I've mostly been buying paper goods because I love writing and as part of my New Year's Resolution I vowed to do more of it.

L—R, Top—Bottom:

Raccoon Finger Puppet from Wild Rumpus – I loved that they had their three pet manx cats roaming the store and they were really sweet & friendly. I wasn't as excited as Kevin was about their two pet chickens roaming around the store. They also had ferrets, chinchillas, a tarantula, and other pets (but in confined quarters, not roaming). I have every intention of stuffing this thing with catnip and giving it to Sebastian.

3-Tier Plastic Tray from Patina – It was on sale for $7.50! And I can never have enough organizing stuff.

5 Balls of St. Denis Yarn in Tomato Red from Linden Hills Yarn – I'm just totally obsessed with Tomato Red right now! And it's 100% wool which means whatever I make will be warm. I think I'll make myself a nice cowl.

Delfonics Wood Pen from Russell + Hazel – These write really smooth, feel great in the hand, and just look really cool. They're also available at Kinokuniya back home (which is where I first saw it), but didn't cave in to getting one until I was over here.

Thomas Paul Camera Case from Honeyshine – I've been looking for a cute little camera case for my Canon S90 for when I don't want to use the leather sling case thing that it came with. And I thought this was totally cute. And why not support small business and fellow makers while I'm at it!

Knock Knock Deal With This Stamp from Patina – This was a little gift to myself to make me smile & laugh about all the things that need to get done.

Izola SALUT! Flask from Honeyshine – I'm sorry, this photo sucks. You can see better photo of it here from Izola's website.

Ron Weasley Keychain from the LEGO Store at Mall of America – I didn't know until I got home that you can turn his hair to reveal different facial expressions: Happy Ron or OMG-FREAKED-OUT Ron.

Number Notebook from Patina – I can never have enough notebooks. And I love numbers…so yeah.

Good Luck Card from Paperista – It's a cute little paper shop although I think their selection isn't as great as Twig & Fig in Berkeley. This card is a "Good Luck with the next chapter of your life" kind of card. I like to stock pile cards because you never know when the right occasion might arise.

Russell + Hazel Big Idea Adhesive Notes from Russell + Hazel – These are essentially beautifully designed oversized post-its and they're actually made from/by Post-it. They have a top box to jot things down and a small rectangle at the bottom for your to-do list.

Rifle Paper Co. Get It Done! Notepad from Minneapolis Institute of Arts – I love Rifle! I've just never purchased anything by them because I don't like paying shipping on ordering paper goods. Luckily, I've been finding their stuff all over this city…although they're a Florida-based studio.

Melody Miller for Kokka Transister Radio Fabric from Crafty Planet – I love the selection of fabric, yarn, and fiber out here! I wish we could get some of this stuff back home.


I'm pretty sure I'm done with shopping, but considering I'm making a trip to Walker on Thursday who knows what else I might buy. I don't even want to begin to think about how I'm packing all this stuff up.

More Coffee, Please

Ever since my trip to San Francisco last month, I've been in love with small independent coffee roasters. I was never really much of a coffee drinker, tea is definitely more my thing. But the characteristics of coffee from smaller roasters remind me very much of tea and that's what got me hooked!

We were roaming around the Calhoun neighborhood of Minneapolis today when we came across the Dogwood Coffee Bar (we'll probably stop by a regular full-size location sometime later). Their coffee was really good, but probably second best to Spyhouse so far. Dogwood is a Minneapolis-based roaster and serves up their beans whereas Spyhouse uses beans from California and Portland roasters. But my absolute fav is still the San Francisco-based Blue Bottle Coffee.