On Friday night, I met up with friends at The 3rd Stop after work. They had a large selection of beers on tap, but I dig my local brews, so I stuck with a Craftsman. I had the Biere de Blanco this time. The food options were not Bronwen-friendly, but more on that later. The people I was with enjoyed their meals, which were pretty standard pub fare options.

Saturday morning, I was moving pretty early. We headed out to Flore Vegan in Silverlake for breakfast. I had blueberry pancakes with tempeh bacon. Lemonade was not available at 10am, because the restaurant had run out of lemons. (Okay? Maybe take lemonade off the blackboard then?) The pancakes were fine, but the tempeh bacon was actually quite awful. It was cold and just plain didn’t hold together. I’m really not a fan of breakfast food, but my boyfriend is, so I wanted to give Flore a shot. Lunch was being served simultaneously, and some of the wraps and sandwiches coming out of the kitchen looked fantastic. Next time, I’ll lunch while he breaks.

I recently started eating exclusively vegan foods. I am increasingly intolerant of lactose in my old age. I have traditionally enjoyed a cast-iron stomach; it used to take a hell of a lot to upset my digestion, but this is simply no longer the case. Additionally, I hate eggs, and I don’t like most forms of meat. I find fish, seafood, and cow (at times) tasty, but that’s about it. More recently, meat started giving me similar problems to the dairy. Meat doesn’t really make me feel that much better than dairy does lately. I did a tiny little experiment of cutting out dairy during a 5-day work week, and, dude, it felt fantastic. So, I went more whole hog, very suddenly. It’s really not difficult. I’m cooking, and it turns out I’m pretty good at it. I feel so much better throughout my day, and the health effects that I was hoping to see have already started rather dramatically.

Anyway. I watched some men’s semifinal action. Went to see 3:10 to Yuma. I enjoyed it. The ending was a little sweet, but hey. I tend to forget Russell Crowe exists, but he’s crazy good, right? Despite his talent, Ben Foster nearly stole the movie as far as I was concerned.

We met up with my friend for dinner at Pure Luck after the movie. Pure Luck exists in this very interesting block of Heliotrope where the hardcore cyclists of Los Angeles congregate. Pure Luck serves vegan food & local beer on tap. It may be my favorite restaurant of all time. I split the spring rolls and then had an avocado tostada, washed down with a Craftsman Heavenly Hefe. So good. Afterwards, we walked right across Heliotrope to Scoops, where I had a dish of black sesame & ginger. Scoops serves multiple vegan flavors every day alongside the crazy inventive dairy flavors.

Sunday, I slept! I watched the women’s final, followed by the men’s final. I caught up on comic books. I was treated to dinner at Real Food Daily, which was a very nice treat indeed. We split a hummus plate for an appetizer, and then I ate a good 3/4ths of the supreme burrito. I had some organic pilsner to drink, and I totally forget what it was, but it was tasty enough. I’d try something harder next time. We split a piece of peach/apple pie for dessert. holler.

After dinner, we headed out to the Hollywood Bowl to see Underworld. I was vaguely familiar with Underworld, but I’d never gone out of my way to listen to them. Me and dance music aren’t exactly tight. But they gave a nice performance, and I had a swanky nice seat that I did not pay for, so all was well. I was out past bedtime on a school night though, so I’m a little sleepyheaded today.

• Chloe Sevigny, The Early Years — Vintage Sassy editorial. I remember this one, because Chloe seemed so effortlessly cool. She does an amazing job as judgmental Nicki on Big Love. She’s the reason I [sometimes] watch the show.

• Let’s Do Lunch, Now That There’s Somewhere to Do It — Top Chef’s top judge Tom Colicchio brings Craft to L.A. Why? Because Bryan Lourd asked him to. right, then.

• Epic Comic Book Series Is Animated for DVD — Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier is now an animated movie. Cooke fought to keep Lois Lane and Wonder Woman in the film. Sidebar. When I was a kid, female action figures were, like, impossible to find. Target had Black Canary, Zatanna, Jean Grey and Emma Frost in stock this weekend. It was pretty sweet.

• Standards of Beauty: Why Is Straight Hair the Epitome of “Style”? — Jezebel responds to that NYTimes article.

• Working Girls — Also per Jezebel, 9 to 5 is Broadway-bound, and Allison Janney is participating in the workshop as Violet. epic.

On Thursday night, I went out to watch the Mets beat up the Dodgers (13-9). Sadly, my favorite Met, Lastings Milledge, had the night off. Also, I ate garlic fries.

On Friday, I went to the El Rey to see The Bird and the Bee with friends. Lowlight of the show was when a trashed Sia (seriously, girl looked like an epileptic Stevie Wonder) joined the bird for a bossanova cover of “How Deep Is Your Love” (I can scarcely believe it myself) during the encore.

After the concert, we went to a Ralph’s in Koreatown just about midnight to purchase the last Harry Potter book. No lines, plus I got Ziplocs & Lean Cuisines (5 roasted vegetable pizzas for $10, hot damn)! After breakfast and errands on Saturday morning, I read both books 6 & 7. Shitty ending.

Sunday was for more errands. IKEA. I just don’t ever want to go to IKEA again.

I just walked back into my office, where my iPod was playing on random. I thought it was playing Nine Inch Nails’ “Survivalism.” Nope, it was Serge Gainsbourg’s “Nazi Rock.” I might be hearing things.

bandanna face-off

I’ve been kinda keeping an eye on Year Zero, the Nine Inch Nails ARG/experience/not totally shady and fairly organic marketing campaign. Yesterday evening, there was a live event in Los Angeles, not too far down the street from my office. So off I went.

The gist of the event was that Steve Peters from 42 gave out 1″ buttons to players when they showed up. There’s a large Year Zero mural on Melrose at Ogden. We were to meet under the pig on the mural, and follow the aim of the revolver across the street to an unmarked van when it arrived. The van arrived around 7, and we completely stopped traffic on Melrose in order to cross the street to get to the van. Good times.

The van contained heavy kits for each participant. Most of the kits were identical, but a few boxes marked with a red star contained cell phones for further gameplay next week. Yeah, I didn’t get a cool box. I’m pretty sure that the few people to whom Steve gave yellow pins got the red boxes.

One of the things inside the box is a bandanna with the Art Is Resistance flag on it. The photo here shows the Anti-Robot Militia bandanna that I got at a live event for The Beast in New York way back in 2001.

Other pictures from the event are on Flickr here.

If you’re interested in the game, as always, check out Unfiction.

After all that, I went out to a gig last night. It was disappointing, but this is now.

My sister and her boyfriend bought a banjo.  Neither knows how to play.  I feel it is my duty to support my sister in her artistic endeavors, so I will become her patron and sponsor her banjo lessons book.  . . . When I find one.

I went to see the Dean & Britta show the other night. My friend Shannon said Britta’s the only woman who should be allowed to wear her jeans tucked into her boots.

You know, seriously. Britta’s nine feet tall and looks like Tricia Helfer’s older, more-moisturized, less-tanorexic sister.