Nine Words for the Water Cooler

DIFFERENT STYLE, SAME ENDING: The Sopranos, The Gilmore Girls. Five more: Nikki Finke couldn't be denser.

Sweet Sweep! Mrs. Newbie's Cookie Cleans Up

WE SAW STIFF COMPETITION today at the Atwater Village Street Festival, and not just from puppies and showgirls. A delectable table offered dozens of baked goodies to the undisclosed judges of the Homemade Cookie Contest. Of the four prizes - best classic, best taste, best decorated and best youth (under 14) entry - the Pink Lady, baked by my very own Mrs. Newbie, won two! They ain't Grammys, but I'm awful proud. Without further ado, Mrs. Newbie's acceptance post: Dear Judges of the Atwater Cookie Contest: Thanks for voting for my cookie, the Pink Lady. You made my day, my week, my month and maybe my year by voting for my cookie as best tasting and best decorated. It's my solemn pledge to you that I will serve with pride as one of the Atwater Village cookie winners. I promise to make lots of delicious Pink Ladies for all deserving people throughout the year. I promise to represent Atwater Village as a wonderful place to live and eat cookies. I will respect my neighbors, postman, and garbage collector by giving them the Pink Lady cookie during the holidays. And I pledge to pray for all the poor souls in Los Angeles who don’t live in such a cool neighborhood and who don’t have cookie contests to enter. There are a few people I really need to thank for my cookie conquest. First and foremost, the judges. You have very good taste. Second, to all the other participants of the cookie contest. Your cookies really gave me a run for my money and had me sweating. As I put my cookies on the table I have to admit that I felt defeated looking at everyone’s delicacies. Amazing! And last but not least, Mr. Newbie. His complete devotion to me and my cookies has never wavered. He is my biggest fan and my biggest critic and is always willing to eat 'one more' for the sake of helping me refine my skills. Without Mr. Newbie there would be no Pink Lady. UPDATE: See 19 more photos from today's neighborhood street fest. UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Curbed LA links to Mrs. Newbie's win. UPDATE TO THE OTHER UPDATES: Tastespotting and LAist add links too.

A Post of a Scan of a Copy of a Copy of a Flier

ONLY A FACSIMILE of the fun you'll have this weekend: Atwater Village Street Festival (featuring Homemade Cookie Contest!) Sunday, June 10, 2007 12:00noon to 4:00pm 3100 Block of Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, California

Sleep-jogging Through Atwater Village

NO IDEA IF THIS 90-second spot was commissioned by Adidas, but there are plenty of neighborhood landmarks. The description from YouTube: "Logline: When a young jogger falls asleep, and begins dreaming about jogging around her Atwater Village Neighborhood at night in her Adidas Tennis Shoes."

Why East and West, No Matter How You Split LA, Must Get Along

"NO TWO COUNTRIES THAT HAVE McDonald's have ever fought a war since each got McDonald's." - Thomas L. Friedman

Bring It, Cookie Makers

FAIR WARNING TO ANYONE thinking of entering this Sunday's homemade cookie contest at the Atwater Village Street Festival. I have been witness to early testing of Mrs. Newbie's top-secret recipe. And I can tell you from personal experience that the final results - already being prepped in an undisclosed kitchen somewhere south of Los Feliz Blvd. - will be even prettier, tastier and more formidable an opponent than what you see here. May the best cookie win. Homemade Cookie Contest Atwater Village Street Festival Sunday June 10, 2007 3100 Block of Glendale Blvd. Prizes awarded at 1:30pm for Best Classic, Best Taste, Best Decorated and Best Youth Entry (13 and Under) UPDATE: LAist posts about these four delicious words.

Atwater Chatter

NEWS FROM IN AND AROUND this funny little flat neighborhood along the Los Angeles River: Iron Yourself a New Shirt - "My pal Mike... opened up the coolest little shop in Atwater called Iron." [If the Birds Knew] Putting the Pee Back in Canele - "The first thing we heard when we were being seated put us off a bit - one of the waitresses announced, to no one in particular, and loudly, 'I GOTTA GO TAKE A PEE!'" [Atwater Village Is for Lovers] GrogMog Bar Review: The Roost - "This post was written while I was shitcanned. This review has been edited for brevity, but not for content." [Ogmog.com] SoyCafe Expanding Across River - "Viet's opening a new restaurant in Atwater Village in the fall. It will be much roomier. Don't worry, the original will stay open." [The Veggiefoodie] Needlessly Polite Memo to Best Buy - "Your Atwater Village Best Buy store... glibly suggested that it was my fault and that I should have handled my computer with more care." [Adventures and Ramblings of Nectar Queen]

LA Qualifies for One of Three New Google Upgrades

IT'S NOT QUITE LIKE losing the Olympics, but... Some major cities in the US - among them New York, Miami and San Francisco - are already enjoying 360-degree pedestrian-level visual searches thanks to Google Maps Street View. And residents of other cities - including the recently-added San Diego - can plan their public transportation needs using Google Transit. But the new trick for Los Angeles? Now on Google Maps those little train station icons are clickable. Ooh.

What $580,000 Gets You in 'Atwater Village Adjacent'

THIS IS WHAT THEY CALL, in Los Angeles anyway, a starter home. It's a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom in Frogtown, also known as Elysian Valley, also known by real-estate agents as "adjacent" to Atwater Village and Silver Lake. This home at 2831 Denby Ave., listed at $580,000, has "excellent bones" and some wildly inappropriate Michael Buble-ish soundtrack on its four-minute slide show. Enjoy.

East-West Debate Re-Rears Its Angelic Head

CALL THEM GEOGRAPHICALLY inflexible. Or just arrogant oldbies. But those comment-less gossipers over at Fishbowl LA are nothing if not consistent: Oct. 10, 2006 - "Say it with us: Eastside means east of the LA River." June 4, 2007 - "Just for the record, the LA River is the dividing line, and no, it's not a fluid border." Um, the river isn't fluid, you say? Blame New Angeles, with its mission to "celebrate the intellectual and cultural renaissance of LA's Eastside." The new monthly mag is reigniting the arrogance of Angelenos who have been bestowed with Proper Perspective by virtue of living here a few more months. The debate rages from Curbed LA to Metroblogging LA. It seems to this east-side newbie that the river has outlived its usefulness as city divider. How different, really, are Los Feliz and Atwater Village? Elysian Valley and Glassell Park? And in the San Fernando Valley do you assign North Hollywood and Van Nuys to the east side of LA? Makes no sense. If we must live in a binary metropolis, how about we cut along Western Avenue? It's straight, long and has the word "west" in it. Easy enough? Besides, if we really wanted history and precedence to settle this, we'd ask the Tongva.

Atwater Village Fish & Game Club

NOTWITHSTANDING THE HEALTH RISKS and legality of fishing in the Los Angeles River, watch this 66-second video to learn how to catch (and release, hopefully) a nice five-pounder. And here's a half minute of the much bigger one that got away: