pop culture – Page 5 – thosecoolkims

Sprinkles Cupcake ATM

This weekend, on our way up to LACMA, we realized that we arrived an hour before it opened and Ruby had fallen asleep in the car. To kill some time, we thought we’d drive by Sprinkles’ new 24/7 Cupcake ATM to see what it was like. We certainly didn’t expect to get a cupcake, especially since all of the coverage on the news was reporting that the lines were hours long!

Well, we got lucky. Maybe it was because of the pouring rain outside, or maybe it was because it was only 10:30am, but there was no line whatsoever! I hopped out of the car and returned with a perfectly packaged Chocolate Marshmallow cupcake! It was just as delicious as it sounds.

Wanna see how it works? Check out the video!

Palm Springs, Day Two

Oh, yesterday was chock full of perfection! It couldn’t have been better, and we managed to fit in just about everything we love in Palm Springs.

First – it must be mentioned that we SLEPT IN.

Then, it was off to Charles Phoenix‘s retro slideshow: Pools, Patios and BBQs. We had been to his Holiday slideshow before, and it was so fun and super kitschy that we knew we would love the backyard one, too. Basically – he has found and collected the jackpot of kodak chodachrome slides from the ’50-’70s, and has compiled them all into one amazing and hilarious compilation. Here’s just one gem of an example from his slides from the show:

Probably even more of a surprise than his show, was the auditorium and grounds of the Palm Springs Art Museum where the show was held! Yes, we always swoon over the amazing mid-century modernness of Palm Springs, but the museum is super-70s, and we couldn’t have been more thrilled! All orange, very orange … we were dying over it, and took a few pics:

After the slideshow, we headed upstairs to catch the Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982 exhibit, which is as amazing as it sounds, and the perfect thing to see while in Palm Springs!

After all the amazing architecture and art, we were starving – so it was time to hit up our favorite place to eat in Palm Springs – Norma’s, which is on the campus of the absolutely fabulous Parker Palm Springs Hotel. There’s not a trip in Palm Springs that has happened that we haven’t stopped at the Parker. We love it there and freak out over Jonathan Adler’s design no matter how many times we’ve seen it. Norma’s has the best brunch ever. I got my usual lobster + asparagus omelette and Ed got a take on eggs benedict with pancakes, canadian bacon + asparagus. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

We’re always planning our next trip to Palm Springs, even before the current one is over, and I’d heard about a new hotel in town called the Saguaro. Basically, they took over the old Holiday Inn and swanktified it – and now, we are definitely going to stay there next time! It looks amazing with all the colors of the rainbow. We could not get enough of this place as we walked around …

After drooling over the grounds of the Saguaro, we took off to drive around the neighborhoods of Palm Springs to admire the gloriously restored and very well loved mid-century modern homes. We even made a stop by one of our old favorite, Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House, and got a pic of it in my fancy 5-series that I’ve been testing all week!

It was an amazing day!

Ruby scores Harajuku Mini!

Okay, Missoni is cool and all, and I definitely wanted some … but I wasn’t motivated to wake up early or stand in line overnight before it came out to get some when it arrived at Target. But, when I found out that Gwen Stefani was doing a Harajuku Mini line for Target, I knew I’d be doing whatever it took to get my hands on some for Ruby!

I absolutely love-love-love the Harajuku Lovers line. It’s just CUTE, and I love cute. All the little details and all of the girlie characters mixed in with a little rock & roll and a little bit of japanese flavor just gets me every time. I mean, just look at G – my favorite fragrance from the Harajuku Lovers perfume line … she is adorable! Ed gifted me with this, and its one of my favorite possessions.

Knowing I’m not alone in my quest for anything HL (or HM, in this case!), I wasn’t sure what to expect at Target this morning. We were in luck, we were the first in line! A few people started to arrive after us, and it was clear they were there for the same reason we were. Here are Ed and Ruby … patiently waiting … :)

After making it in, we totally scored. I started grabbing everything 12 months, and then sorting through to see what I wanted to keep. Thanks to a birthday gift card from our dear friends Colleen, Quan and Fiona, we were able to get LOTS of stuff (thanks, Nguyens!!!). We ended up going with the Plaid Jumper with Legwarmers set, 2 outfits featuring the adorable Harajuku Baby characters, “Baby Bunny” and “Baby Dog” , along with two pairs of awesome knee socks!

Here’s Ruby with all of her loot:

The girl working at Target told me there was going to be a 2nd wave of the line coming out in December, so you know we’ll be waiting to see what’s new then, too! Can’t wait for Ruby to start rocking her Harajuku Mini fashion! This may also be an excuse for Mommy to get some new Harajuku Lovers gear as well? :)

One thing is for certain: I want to find this luggage for myself! No sign of it at the store, and everything online says things are only sold in stores. So – if you see this suitcase, you HAVE to let me know!!!

Art in the Streets at MOCA

To celebrate Ed’s birthday, we headed over to MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary Building to see one of the coolest exhibitions ever, Art in the Streets. This show is HUGE and it shows just how far street art has come from back in the day when people just called it “grafitti” (It’s so much more!). If you really wanna get a good look inside the people who’ve helped catapult the Street Art movement, check out the documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” – you won’t be disappointed.

Here are a few highlights!
Hard to see, but this is me standing in front of a bunch of teensy pictures of grafitti art on trains.

Ed and Ruby in front of one of the Shepard Fairey walls

(Does something look familiar about his work? You probably know him from this hugely popular poster!)

Banksy

Mister Cartoon’s Low Rider Ice Cream Truck

Day-Glo room

Fun alley

Spray paint retrospective!

God Save the Queen!

And finally … after all that art … over-stimulation!

Its really tough to put into words what an impact that exhibition has, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a street art enthusiast. You should see it in person, too!

Check the album for more pics:

MOCA – Art in the Streets

Hi there

We’ve been busy Kims, and busy lately has resulted in less blogging! No restaurants lately, because we’ve been cooking up a storm here at home (and eating quite well, due to our developing culinary skills, I might add!). No traveling lately, simply because we’ve been a little broke. And, no camera lately, because it seems we’ve become even more dependent on our beloved iPhones! It’s all terribly boring, so we’ve been keeping pretty quiet these days.

But because we can’t let our blog get too dusty with inactivity, I gave it a little makeover. And, I’ll leave you with a few things that have been distracting us lately:

#1: Flight of the Conchords!
We can’t get enough of this show! Too bad the fun had to end after Season 2 …

#2: LOST
Not much to say here except that we are giddy its back! It is a little bittersweet however, because the further we get into the season only means we’re getting closer to the point that it’s over … for good! (Did you forget what LOSTmaniacs we are? Check out our party at the Long Beach Hatch to refresh your memory …)

Okay, so I just realized our excuses are two TV shows, and that’s just sad. But we have some fun stuff planned that’s coming right up, so things should get a lot more interesting around here soon!