Is LA Truly the Greatest City Ever!? Hot Takes & LA Secrets Exposed!

Summary

Podcast Summary: LA PLATICA – "Is LA Truly the Greatest City Ever!? Hot Takes & LA Secrets Exposed!"

Episode Overview Released on November 25, 2024, LA PLATICA delves deep into the heart and soul of Los Angeles, exploring its rich history, diverse cultures, iconic neighborhoods, and the hidden gems that make LA arguably the greatest city ever. Hosted by Sebas and Josh Lea, this episode features Evan, a passionate LA enthusiast and creator of the "LA in a Minute" platform, who shares his extensive knowledge and personal anecdotes about the city.

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1. Guest Introduction: Evan's Journey with LA

Evan, the special guest, is introduced as someone deeply connected to Los Angeles. Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley (now North Hills), Evan’s upbringing was a blend of sports enthusiasm from his father, a boxing manager, and the free-spirited nature of his mother, a hippie who adored Venice Beach and Griffith Park.

"I'm a guy born and raised in LA. In the geographic center of the San Fernando Valley..." [03:59]

Evan’s passion for LA stems from a desire to uncover and share the city’s multifaceted history and culture, often overlooked in favor of its glamorous Hollywood image.

2. Los Angeles: A City of Hidden Histories and Cultures

Evan emphasizes that LA is not just about Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and Santa Monica. He highlights the city's true essence lies in its diverse neighborhoods, each with its unique stories and cultural significance.

"220 languages spoken in LA. People from 140 Countries in Los Angeles. That's culture right there." [04:57]

a. The Los Angeles River

A significant portion of Evan’s discussion centers on the LA River, affectionately called "the Wash" by locals. He traces its transformation from a natural river prone to flooding to the concrete channel managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

"The LA river, like starts the valley. That kind of stuff gets me excited." [06:00]

Evan’s fascination with the river's history showcases his commitment to educating others about LA's infrastructural and environmental evolution.

b. Diverse Neighborhoods

Evan sheds light on neighborhoods like Sylmar, Boyle Heights, Atwater Village, and Downey, each with its own historical and cultural landmarks. He discusses Sylmar’s role in the LA Aqueduct project and Boyle Heights’ vibrant Mexican heritage.

"Sylmar is like an important community. It's where the LA aqueduct comes in." [18:12]

He also acknowledges the changing dynamics due to gentrification, particularly in areas like Highland Park, while appreciating their historical significance.

3. LA’s Influence on Fast Food Culture

One of Evan’s standout segments covers the origins of major fast-food chains in LA, debunking the myth that the city is solely about health-conscious lifestyles.

"Fast food is one of the biggest exports from Los Angeles." [08:57]

He narrates the birth stories of iconic brands such as Taco Bell, Panda Express, and Fat Burger, highlighting their innovative beginnings and the immigrant stories that fueled their growth.

"Taco Bell was started by Glenn Bell... he had a place called Bell's Burgers." [41:46]

Evan’s insights reveal how LA’s entrepreneurial spirit shaped the modern fast-food landscape.

4. Entertainment Capital: The True Roots of Hollywood

Evan challenges the conventional belief that Hollywood is the sole birthplace of the American film industry. He traces the origins back to Edendale (now Silver Lake), where pioneers like Francis Boggs laid the groundwork for modern filmmaking.

"Francis Boggs is basically the guy who we owe modern day moving." [46:22]

Evan explains how early filmmakers fled to California to escape Thomas Edison’s patents, leveraging LA’s favorable climate to develop the entertainment industry into a global powerhouse.

5. Hidden Gems and Personal Favorites

Evan shares his favorite spots in LA, ranging from historic establishments to modern-day attractions.

a. Highland Park

Despite concerns about gentrification, Evan praises Highland Park’s classic venues like Highland Park Bowl and Forever 21, illustrating the blend of old and new that characterizes many LA neighborhoods.

"Highland park bowl... stepping back in time." [36:17]

b. The Great Wall of Los Angeles

A monumental mural in Valley Village, the Great Wall of Los Angeles, painted by Judy Baca and juvenile delinquents from Sylmar, is highlighted as a profound representation of the city’s history from prehistoric times to the present.

"It's the longest mural in the world. More than half a mile long." [48:42]

c. Hidden Religious Art

Evan introduces Forest Lawn in Glendale, home to the world’s largest religious painting, "The Crucifixion," painted by a Polish artist and later discovered by Forest Lawn's director.

"It's a beautiful work by this artist from Poland." [51:03]

6. Sports and Community: Dodgers and Lakers

Evan delves into the intertwined history of LA's sports teams and the communities they represent.

a. Los Angeles Dodgers

He discusses the controversial displacement caused by Dodger Stadium’s construction, including the burial of Palo Verde Elementary School beneath the stadium's foul territory.

"There's an elementary school there called... they buried it to flatten the ground." [53:54]

Evan calls for acknowledgment from the Dodgers organization regarding this history.

b. Los Angeles Lakers

Highlighting lesser-known facts, Evan reveals that the Lakers originated as the Detroit Gems before moving to Minneapolis and finally Los Angeles, a journey unfamiliar to many fans.

"The Lakers actually started in Detroit." [55:08]

7. Fast Five Questions: Quick Takes

In a fun interactive segment, Evan answers rapid-fire questions about his favorite LA spots and experiences.

a. Favorite Fast Food Spot

Evan expresses a fondness for Jack in the Box over other chains, citing their innovative menu and nostalgic logo.

"Jack in the box. Number One fast." [56:00]

b. Favorite LA Fun Fact

He reveals that LA was once the mass transit capital of the world with over 1,500 train stops in the early 20th century, surpassing New York’s subway system.

"Los Angeles was the mass transit capital of the world in the 1910s, 1920s into the 1930s." [58:00]

c. Most Underrated Neighborhood

Atwater Village is Evan’s pick, praised for its equestrian areas and proximity to the LA River.

"Atwater Village. Underrated." [60:21]

d. Favorite Musical Artist

Currently, Evan is a fan of the rap duo Coyote, who blend traditional West Coast hip-hop with modern sounds, representing LA’s evolving music scene.

"Coyote. They represent the culture in LA in 2024." [63:03]

e. Favorite Bar

Oibar in Studio City tops his list, appreciated for its authentic atmosphere, skilled bartenders, and unique Japanese-Jewish fusion cuisine.

"Oibar on Moore park and Whitset. My favorite bar." [65:18]

8. Conclusion: LA’s Endless Possibilities

The episode wraps up with heartfelt reflections on what makes LA special. Evan underscores the city's vastness, natural beauty, and the endless opportunities it offers for creativity and personal growth.

"Whatever you can imagine is what you can make Los Angeles be for you." [70:15]

Josh and Sebas echo these sentiments, expressing their deep love for the city and appreciation for Evan’s enlightening perspectives.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• "I'm a guy born and raised in LA. In the geographic center of the San Fernando Valley..." — Evan [03:59]
• "220 languages spoken in LA. People from 140 Countries in Los Angeles. That's culture right there." — Evan [04:57]
• "Fast food is one of the biggest exports from Los Angeles." — Evan [08:57]
• "Francis Boggs is basically the guy who we owe modern day moving." — Evan [46:22]
• "It's the longest mural in the world. More than half a mile long." — Evan [48:42]
• "Los Angeles was the mass transit capital of the world in the 1910s, 1920s into the 1930s." — Evan [58:00]
• "Atwater Village. Underrated." — Evan [60:21]
• "Jack in the box. Number One fast." — Evan [56:00]
• "Whatever you can imagine is what you can make Los Angeles be for you." — Evan [70:15]

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Key Takeaways:

• Rich History and Culture: Los Angeles boasts a complex and diverse history that extends far beyond its modern-day image as a hub for entertainment and luxury.
• Diverse Neighborhoods: Each neighborhood in LA has its unique story, contributing to the city's rich tapestry of cultures and communities.
• Influence on Fast Food: Many of the world's leading fast-food chains originated in LA, driven by innovative entrepreneurs and immigrant communities.
• Entertainment Roots: Hollywood’s dominance in the film industry is rooted in earlier developments in areas like Edendale, highlighting LA’s foundational role in global entertainment.
• Hidden Gems: LA is filled with lesser-known attractions and historic sites that offer deep insights into the city's past and present.
• Sports and Community Impact: LA’s sports teams are intertwined with the city's history, reflecting both its achievements and the controversies that have shaped its communities.
• Endless Possibilities: Los Angeles offers limitless opportunities for creativity, personal growth, and experiencing diverse cultures, making it a city of endless possibilities.

This episode of LA PLATICA serves as an enlightening exploration of Los Angeles, encouraging listeners to appreciate and delve deeper into the city's multifaceted identity. Whether you're a long-time resident or a curious visitor, Evan’s insights provide a compelling case for why LA might just be the greatest city ever.

Transcript

[Evan]

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[Sebas]

See DutchBros.com Guys, today's video is sponsored by the one and only seeking you guys already know. Every episode we talk about SeatGeek.

[Evan]

Why?

[Sebas]

Because we're huge fans of SeatGeek. We use SeatGeek and I know a lot of you guys do too and we're here to hook you up. But before that, why SeatGeek?

[Josh]

Well, SeatGeek is the number one ready ticketing app on the app store. Sevas was over 70,000 live events, over 28 million downloads. Seatgeek don't play. Play. Okay, okay. You guys already know Seatgeek is super user friendly. Green dot means good, red red dot means bad. They're here to give you guys the best prices, which is why they make it easy for you.

[Sebas]

Yep, exactly. Sporting events like obviously we live here in Los Angeles. My family's coming over. Guess where I'm at. I'm on seatgeek looking at Rams tickets, Laker tickets, Kings tickets. Come on.

[Josh]

I just actually got back from a Kings game. It was incredible. They played against the Red Wings and.

[Sebas]

You got them where?

[Josh]

The only ticketing app I use se.

[Sebas]

And for those, for those first time users on SeatGeek, we're going to give you $20 off just by simply on checkout.

[Josh]

Come on.

[Sebas]

Adding La Platica for $20 off your first ticketing purchase, just like that.

[Josh]

That's right, guys, $20 off. Using the code La Platica, you already know we're going to hook you up. And like Sev as always says, if you see us at one of these events, cuz we, we be on the apps we out there. All right, we're going to get you guys a michelada on La Platica just for using our code.

[Sebas]

Enjoy today's show. You see watching the show, $20 off. Just like that. Just watching the show.

[Josh]

Not only are you getting pure quality gold entertainment, you saving money to my boy. So bye bye. No lose, lose over here. All we gonna do is win. Family. Welcome to La Platica, the number one Latino podcast in the world. And that's only according to Google, I can assure you I Swear to you. I assure you that Sevas and I have never said that. And who is Sevas that I might be referring to? That would be my beautiful co host, Ias. All right. He's beautiful, he's handsome.

[Sebas]

Thank you.

[Josh]

And he has luscious, gorgeous, silky hair.

[Sebas]

I assure you it's beautiful.

[Josh]

Bro, you need to show us your curl routine.

[Sebas]

I assure you.

[Josh]

Do you have a curl routine?

[Sebas]

I assure you.

[Josh]

Anyways, I'm Josh Lea. I'm your other co host. Today we have an incredible guest. But before I get into our guest, I want to say shout out to our friends over at SeatGeek, the number one rated ticketing app on the app. So you guys already know we love se. We ride for se. It's where it's at. We have an incredible guest that honestly, this guy is more fascinating than you can ever imagine. You guys are in for a treat. And yeah, I'll let some of us introduce.

[Sebas]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Josh]

This incredible human being.

[Sebas]

Yeah, of course. Let's do it. You ready for the intro?

[Josh]

Let's do it.

[Sebas]

Here we go. We have a special guest. So somebody who actually is kind of dearly to me, someone who teaches me almost every day about Los Angeles. Somebody who I'm actually fortunate to meet. Somebody who I've been talking to Josh about, to Jess about, to Matt about. And I'm. I'm not even going to say anything, but I'm the one that. It was my idea.

[Evan]

Wow.

[Sebas]

To bring Evan from LA in a minute here on LA Platica. Evan, thank you so much for being here.

[Josh]

Evan, welcome to the show, man.

[Sebas]

Welcome to the show.

[Evan]

Thank you guys for having me. Very, very comfortable. Fun situation here. And with that kind of intro. Oh, yeah, I'm ready, man.

[Josh]

Evan, we want to know what's the backstory on who you are? Tell us about, like what you do and just a more deeper context for people who might not be aware of you.

[Evan]

That's a good question because what's your one minute pitch.

[Josh]

Evan? In a minute, in a minute.

[Evan]

Look, I'm a guy born and raised in la.

[Josh]

Love that.

[Evan]

In the geographic center of the San Fernando Valley, it was called Sepulveda when I grew up. It's now known as North Hills. My parents instilled in me, like, the love of Los Angeles. My dad was a boxing manager when I was growing up, so he had a gym in South LA, 108th and Broadway. So we're always driving around going to Raider games, Laker games, Dodger games, Griffith Park, Venice Beach. My mom was a hippie, so she loved like the Venice boardwalk and nature and all that stuff. So we always like saw LA and loved la and I just learned to, to fall in love with this city. But as I was growing up, everybody's always like, LA has no history, LA has no culture. And all you need to do is like, look around. 220 languages spoken in LA. People from 140 Countries in Los Angeles. That's culture right there. And when people think of la, they're like Beverly Hills movies, Hollywood, Santa Monica. But that's not the LA I grew up in and that's not the LA that I fell in love with. So as I got older, I was always the guy that would like text my friends, like just random stuff about la. You know, there's this place in Boyle Heights that serves a five pound burrito, shout out El Tepayak. But like, which crazier? Like something like, you know, the first Taco Bell, the first, you know, all that stuff kind of got Denny started as Danny's Donuts and all.

[Josh]

You would just text your friends, he's like.

[Evan]

Or somebody that went to a high school. Like, I always love, like, you know, let's say Jennifer Aniston, Val Kilmer, John Carlos Stanton, John Elway, they all went to schools in Los Angeles. And that always excited me. So whenever like a celebrity or athlete did something, I'd be like, up Notre Dame, Sherman Oaks, or like Van Eyes High or like stuff like that. So I always fell in love with la. And you know, growing up, as I became older, my son sort of inspired a platform to, to be able to tell people like the history and culture of la. Like again, the LA River. I walk by the LA river every single day of my life, okay? And it's a concrete channel. Nine months a year, it's just a dry concrete channel. And I grew up next to LA River. We called it the Wash. I never once heard it referred to as the LA river ever. So I'm like, I'm like, is this a river? I know what rivers look like. They're flowing bodies of water, not concrete channels. So like one day, genuinely, I stopped, did research right there on my phone. I'm like, what's the history of the LA River? You know, going back to the Tongva native indigenous people, you know, through the point that it actually was a wild river that would flood la. And the reason why it's a concrete channel is, is because there were these devastating floods like every 60 years. So the Army Corps of Engineer had to generate a way to get the water out of the Los Angeles basin as fast as possible. So they made a concrete channel that that like lets out at the San Pedro Bay in Long beach, but it also starts in Canoga park, right behind Canoga Park High School, which again, being a valley guy, I'm like, fuck yeah. Like, dude, the LA river, like starts the valley. That kind of stuff gets me excited. So telling those stories always excite me. My son plays into it because he was getting into screen time, was watching all this garbage screen time. So I was like, you know what? If he's gonna watch the screen, I'm at least be like, you gotta watch this first. So I know you learned something.

[Josh]

Wow.

[Evan]

And hopefully get that pride of Los Angeles.

[Sebas]

Was that your first video the LA River?

[Evan]

No, the first videos actually were me with a newspaper because I'm a newspaper. Like I'm an old journalist. I went to ucla, I was a sports writer, but still journalist for UCLA Daily Brewing. So I still subst to. To this day I subscribe to the LA Times and the Daily News. But the first ones were just me holding a newspaper being like, here are three stories that happened in LA today in less than a minute. But news isn't always fun. It's often boring and, or controversial in a way that's not fun. So one day, walking by the river, do that river story. And then I'm always reading books. One of the books I was reading was California or LA's landmark restaurants or Made in California by George Geary. And it's just about all the restaurants and chains that came from la and all these fast food chains came from Los Angeles. The land of healthy, good looking people. Everybody's so skinny and trying to lose weight. Bullshit. LA is the land of fast food. And fast food is one of the biggest exports from Los Angeles. So I did an episode the 10 oldest fast food chains that started in LA, which is basically all of them.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

And that kind of blew up a little bit and gave me the idea that, wow, people are curious about what I'm passionate about and I love telling those stories and doing that research.

[Josh]

Are you still learning new fun facts about LA every day? Because you've kind of become like an LA expert at this point. And how much are you every day, are you still learning new stuff?

[Evan]

You know, I don't, I, I'm almost uncomfortable with that term expert because I am learning, right. I don't know all this stuff people like you know so much and you know all these facts. I'm like No, I love doing the research and I love learning. And my approach is like, I want to learn this stuff. Hopefully you're interested as well.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

And you know, not trying to be like. Well, I know the. No, like, so every single day, like when I'm curious about something, whether it's a restaurant that doesn't exist or restaurants that do still exist but have a good history, or just monuments like, like recently I was on the. I always drive on the 134. My son goes to school in Glendale. And there's this big tall. I call it an obelisk. It's not, but it's like this 100t tall thing. Sculpture. I was like, what the.

[Sebas]

Oh, is it on the freeway?

[Evan]

What is that? Right? Does it look like an 134?

[Sebas]

Like Colorado looks like an egg.

[Evan]

No, no, it just looks like a twisted, pointy Washington Monument.

[Sebas]

I've seen that.

[Evan]

So I was like, what is. But that's the kind of stuff where I'm like, curious. So it's like, what the heck is that? And I'll literally stop and pull over and like do the research and put the story together. Because every day I'm learning because every. You're on a street. Who's this street named after? Like, right. Why is it Whitnall Highway? There's. There's this thing called the Whitnall highway that looks like it used to be a highway. It's obviously not now it's power lines. But why was it a highway? And that turns into the fact that L. A. The land of freeways. Only 7% of the freeways that were supposed to be built were actually built. And when you think about that, you're like, dude, L A. L A could have like 14x the number of freeways that it has now. When you see the original freeway master plan. So again, that sparked an episode. Four freeways that were never built. And that's crazy. Beverly Hills free. There was supposed to be a freeway running right through Beverly Hills. There was supposed to be a freeway on where Laurel Canyon is. It was going to be the Laurel Canyon freeway. So I mean like everywhere you look there's something interesting about la. Either in the history that was or that wasn't. So I'm always just trying to learn.

[Sebas]

And yeah, isn't it crazy how people, even myself, we just overlook. We just live life just overlooking everything. Cuz everything has history to it. Like even the street here where we're off and has a history to it, you know, or. Or why these, these streets have like Latin Names to them. Like, first of all, I, first of all, want to say thank you for. For you being here. Just hearing you talk right now, like, excites me.

[Evan]

I'm like, I love you from la.

[Sebas]

He's literally the same. Like, obviously, I'm not saying that you're trying to front to be somebody else, but you hear the exact same guy. The way that you talk everything like that, like that. To me right now, I'm like, yes, dude.

[Evan]

I. Because we listen, like, again, it almost makes me mad. It does make me mad because we grew up and people would just. On la, from every to this day, we're the only team, like, take it in a sports level, right? There's no other teams where they have a chant, beat la, beat la. There's no other season, there's no other teams like that. I mean, look, Dodger fans get creative sometimes and they'll come up with some dope chance. But, like, LA is always this scapegoat. But people in New York, oh, LA, people in San Francisco, oh, LA. Like, pat on the head, little brother. Like, dude, LA goes back again just as far back as anywhere else. It's because LA is always the city of the future and the city of tomorrow. And we haven't necessarily stopped to appreciate the past because historically, LA has been this place that people go for a fresh start. Go west, young man, you know, was an old thing. And it's the end of the. The manifest destiny of the United States. But it's where people used to go to get away from. From everything or go to have these fresh starts. And that makes sense because we're the city of innovation, city of the future, city of tomorrow. But when you peel back those layers, there's always the history of what was there before. Yeah. And this is the funny thing, like, look at the people in this room. La, truly. And this was always what was, like, magical to me. LA is so. That word diversity, right? Is like a. It's a term and it's important, but it really is from the days of, you know, again, the indigenous people in Los Angeles, the various tribes, and the fact that our freeways are actually based on indigenous footpaths, which is dope.

[Josh]

Wow.

[Evan]

To think about, because you're like, wait, we didn't come up with these freeways, we call them freeways, but those were there strategically, like, for a reason, because they were the best trade routes, whether it's, like, geographically or strategically or whatever. But then LA's founding, the founding of the pueblo of Los Angeles, there were Africans there was a Filipino, Mexican, Spanish. From the day that Los Angeles was quote, unquote, founded in September 4, 1781, like, it has been a diverse city. And don't get me wrong, there's been crazy racism. There were periods, I mean, lapd, you know, throughout the history, Daryl Gates, all that stuff. But LA is one of the main places in this world where you can go from San Pedro to Sylmar, from Hawthorne to Hidden Hills, from. From Pacoima to Give me some with a P. But you will see perfect. You'll see white people, black people, Armenian people, Korean people. And it's like such a beautiful thing. And I realized in retrospect, like my junior high home, it was called junior high back then. You guys are young.

[Josh]

Oh no, we called it junior high too.

[Evan]

Oh, dude. Yeah, Okay. I thought you guys. So middle school.

[Sebas]

Middle school. I think I was still middle school where I was at.

[Evan]

Yeah, yeah. So my homeroom. No kidding. I had an Egyptian person, a Korean person, Armenian person, Jewish person, you know, Mexico. And you don't think of it when you're like, am I in seventh grade? But in retrospect you're like, this is pretty special because there aren't many places, even diverse cities know, New York, San Francisco, Chicago. There's more self segregation. And not to say there aren't areas in LA that aren't specifically one type of. Of race or ethnicity or the other, but because everybody needs to drive and because everybody needs to go everywhere, you're always rubbing elbows with all kinds. And that makes it really special cuz you're exposed to the food, to the culture, to the language, to the music. And like, there's so many different things that you get this exposure and it makes for like just a richer existence. Like being in Los Angele.

[Sebas]

Do you feel like now, like. Because obviously like you're popping on social media, whether they follow you or not, they know who you are. That's just facts, right?

[Josh]

That's the beauty of TikTok, by the way. Like, you almost don't need to follow people. People just pop up on your. Yeah, it's crazy, man.

[Sebas]

Do you feel some sort of pressure of posting now continuously? Because people need your knowledge. People want to hear your LA in a minute. Do you feel some sort of like, you know, constant pressure of needing to do what you're doing?

[Evan]

It's not the pressure from people being like, you're new to post, obviously. I'm sure there's people out there. It's like you post too much. Here's the pressure and this is the truth is there's so many stories to tell in Los Angeles that I feel like I'm not gonna get to them. All right? Because 573 neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Think about that. Like, Everybody is there.573.573 neighborhoods more than anywhere else in the world. And, like, sometimes it's something simple. I used to live in Sherman Oaks. There's a little neighborhood called Hidden Woods. There's no woods. I mean, there's a few trees, but, like, people are proud of that little neighborhood, stuff like that. You know what I mean? Or it's like Alvarado Terrace. Nobody, like, thinks about little neighborhood. Like, you're like, okay, Pico Union. But no, even within Pico Union, there's all these small neighborhoods. So they all have stories. And it's not just like some people got together, like, we're going to call it this. Although, you know, in some cases now, realtors kind of try to do that, but they all have stories. And then all the people that have come from Los Angeles that are not just famous, but historical figures are like, even Albert Einstein lived in Los Angeles. George Bush and his son lived in Los Angeles. You know, obviously, Obama, Ronald Reagan. Like, these are presidents of the United States.

[Sebas]

I think you just did a video of presidents who lived in Compton.

[Evan]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Josh]

That's cool.

[Evan]

Yeah, it's like 1949. Okay.

[Josh]

So it wasn't really Compton.

[Evan]

A little bit different. But again, what's funny is because again, Compton has that stigma or the reputation, but Kevin Costner was born in Compton. Wow. What's his face? Pete Roselle, former commissioner of the NFL, who actually created the super bowl and Monday Night Football. He was raised in Compton. So it's. But every neighborhood has, like, these stories in this little history. And again, it's not even just about the neighborhoods or the people. There's so many. LA has been so influential where the Internet was invented, you know, like, LA used to be the mass transit capital the world. What. So the pressure I feel is there are so many stories to tell. So I'm like, I'm going to be 85 years old, knock on wood, on my deathbed. And I'm like, I didn't get to cover, you know, like, blah, blah, blah. But that's the. So I want to post more because there's so much to talk about.

[Sebas]

But it's amazing because when you will be 85, you can at least say, at least I told a story.

[Evan]

True, right?

[Sebas]

It's not really about how many. It's that I did.

[Evan]

Right. And that we bring to the forefront the pride that people have in Los Angeles. And like everybody knows there's LA pride. Yeah. I think what I've seen is that people are really perfect example. My wife's from Sylmar, right. My. My best friend in sixth grade was in Sylmar and I used to ride my bike there. Which now in retrospect I would never let my son like ride that far. It's great, is a far. Right. But like I have a personal connection with Sylmar, of course. So I did this episode on Sylmar. Right. And Sylmar is like an important community. It's where the LA aqueduct comes in. The. The water that we get from 270 miles away that even make this city possible.

[Sebas]

Is that where you see it come down the mountain and it looks like milk?

[Evan]

The. You say milk?

[Sebas]

That's a good one because it looks really white. What? My, My wife's really gullible. And I said babe, do you know that that's actually milk? She goes shut the up.

[Evan]

No.

[Sebas]

Right.

[Josh]

I've never told her the truth.

[Sebas]

Creamy looking. That's what it is. Right?

[Evan]

Right. But the thing is it comes from 270 miles away. And it was like one of the greatest feats of engineering of all time. It was considered along with the Panama Canal the greatest feat of human engineering at the time in 1913. And the water comes from 270 miles away. And we look, La stole it. There was a syndicate involved. Mulholland, Chandler, Harrison Gray, Otis Moses, Sherman. All these like important ladies. But la, only the LA river only had enough water to sustain a population of a hundred thousand people. But they saw how LA was growing. They're like we need to go get water. And again. So it's like kind of wow. But that's in Sylmar. Sylmar used to be the world's biggest olive orchard. Sylmar has the landfill where like three quarters of our trash. Active trash goes.

[Sebas]

So the point is that's crazy.

[Evan]

Shining a light on Sylmar. I got a lot of people reaching out like bro. Either A. I never think about Sylmar. And now I'm like curious and I want to check it out.

[Josh]

I really know.

[Evan]

Or people from Silmal were like thank you for talking about my community. And that's amazing. It's like cuz again every neighborhood has cool.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

And like fun facts and a good history. And like it's just awesome to uncover that.

[Sebas]

Imagine going on a blind date with Evan like this were You.

[Josh]

How did you meet your wife?

[Evan]

Wow, that's a funny story. Okay, she was. I'll try to keep this one quick. But she. My best friend slash college roommate. His best female friend was her sister.

[Josh]

Okay.

[Evan]

It's funny. Gabby. Shout out to Yabby, who's awesome. But at the time, to your point with the blind date, Gabby was, like, fairly annoyed with me because I was a big talk. I always talk, right? So we. We kind of, like, we didn't really, like, hit it off. Long story short. Right. But we were cool because we had this mutual cordial one day and this Tim was a bartender at TGI Fridays in Port Porter Ranch. And he'd hook us up with, like, free beers. So me and my buddy Jared, another great friend to this day, would come in, we drink free beer and play trivia. Like, yeah, two total nerds playing, like, bar trivia. One day, Tim's on the phone. He's like, yeah, okay. Okay, cool. Like, cool. He's like, hey, guys, Gabby's coming. I was like, all right, that's my cue. Like, I'm out of here. Like, it's like 9:30 on a Sunday night. I'm out of here. And he's like, dude, I'll keep the beer flowing. Like, don't worry, we'll stay. And then he gets on the phone again. He's like, okay, cool. He's like, and her sister's coming. And now I'm like, now I'm really out of here. Like, Gabby and a mini Gabby. Shout out to Gabby, who's a special, amazing person. We get along great today. But at the time, that was my thought. Turns out Gabby's sister was Irene, my wife. She walks in, she's beautiful, stunning. We hit it off, and again, I was kind of like, you know, I wasn't a player player. So I. Yeah, I didn't make a move or anything like that, David. I was like, like, damn, she's gorgeous. Kept thinking about her. I happened to be invited to her surprise birthday party that was the next week. And that's where, like, we really solidified it. Yeah. So, like. But so she was. She's younger. She went to the same high school as me. Not at the same time. I mean, we were older when we met, obviously. And then. Yeah. So we had crossed paths a lot in the past and stuff like that. So we had a lot to, like, hit it off on. And now we're.

[Sebas]

I love that.

[Evan]

Going on almost 20 years. 19. 20 years married.

[Josh]

What were you doing at the time? For work. Like, what's been your work career trajectory.

[Sebas]

Or were you still going to ucla?

[Evan]

All right, so I was. I wanted to be a baseball player when I was growing up. That didn't work out, obviously. So what's the next best thing? They always say, those who can, do, those who can't, teach well, those who can't, also write about it and become journalists. So I was like, I'm going to become a sports journalist.

[Sebas]

Oh, cool.

[Evan]

I wanted to become the next Fred Rogan. At the time, local news was a big deal. And like the local sportscasters, it was like a big thing. Espn, eventually espn. But I like the idea of staying local and doing LA sports. So I actually had an internship at NBC with Fred Rogan. I'm like, great. I'm on the path. I told, you know, as an intern, you're supposed to take seriously. You got to be first in, last out. Work hard, get coffee, make copies, do all the shit work. I was like, all that. I'm in the door. I knew at the end of the internship there was going to be what they call a screen test. Yeah, that's when they tape you in the big chair, like in actual frog's chair with your shirt and tie on. Like, deliver Laker yesterday. So I was like, dude, I'm gonna nail that. I don't need to do on this internship. If I was supposed to be in at 7, 11. 11. Show up at 7 on the nose. Le at like 10:45 and be like, looking at the clock. Never did. So, like, the day comes for the screen test, and there's three other interns and I go forth and I'm like, got this. I'm like, talking. Yeah, they're out there.

[Sebas]

Save the last. The best.

[Evan]

Yeah, Like, I'm gonna kill it. And by the way, with that, what happens with that tape? You send it off to all these networks.

[Josh]

Okay.

[Evan]

Because you know you're not going to start at NBC in Los Angeles. But, like, that's the tape that you're gonn till. So I go on, I'm like, in the big chair reading my stuff. Get an interruption on the overhead. Excuse me, can you please enunciate more? I had never heard that word, enunciate before. I thought it meant. I was like, what does this mean? Speak louder. And it means to, like, pronounce.

[Sebas]

Pronounce your words.

[Evan]

So I just, like, get louder on the m. Anyway, I could tell with the energy in the room that I was like, oh, I just bombed this thing. Like, it was because none of the other interns Got interrupted and like, and then it just, it was just bad after. So I bombed it and I was like, oh man, there goes my shot. I'm definitely not going to try to intern. Like forget being an intern again, blah, blah. Luckily I have my writing career to fall back on and I got a job for the LA Times, but in Orange county covering lower tier sport because you're not going to start coming, right? So I was covering like high school volleyball, women's golf. Nothing against those sports but like as a 21, 22 year old dude, doesn't exist. Cover the big. And I was covering UCLA football and UCLA basketball. Something like this is a step down even though it's LA Times. And back then the Internet wasn't what it was, so I'd have to go back to downtown LA to file my stories. And I was getting out at like 12:30, 1:00 on Friday nights, Saturday nights, my boys are partying, like all this kind of stuff. Somewhere along the line somebody's like, go into pr. It's the same thing as journalism, except the hours are better and the pay is better.

[Josh]

Oh, interesting.

[Evan]

Well, I got a job in what I thought was pr. It ended up being online advertising at this company called Vandari Group. Shout out doesn't exist anymore, but it was like a dot com, even though it was after the dot com bubble burst, pastel walls, McDonald's balls, people drinking beer in the office, which like again, 22 years, this is Google, this is dope. You know, young people, all this kind of stuff, exciting energy. So I worked in online advertising for the next like 15 years, which is a good profession. But it didn't like scratch that itch of being creative or I'd have side. I had a blog, I had an email newsletter. I was always like trying to do something where I could just be. I cooked, I grew, I had a garden. Like just trying to like scratch that itch of, of finding my passions and being creative about and producing something. And then along the way, Ellie in a minute came about.

[Sebas]

I love that. One thing that I want to tell you, Evan, is that you know all the education that you spread about Lo Angeles.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Sebas]

You're spreading it to, to people like me, like, like a Mexican man. Or, or you said I'm a Mexican man. I was gonna say boy, but I was like, let's just say man.

[Josh]

Right.

[Sebas]

But you're spreading this, this knowledge and, and you're speaking about like us Hispanics as well in such a good way. And it's like, what's Your ethnicity?

[Evan]

I'm white. I'm Jewish. My parents come from. My dad was born in la. My mom was born in Philly, but they're so Ukrainian. Ukrainian, Russian, English is what that is. But my wife's Mexican.

[Sebas]

Oh, I love that.

[Evan]

And thus my son's half Mexican. And here's the thing. It's like, again, because I. I don't want to say. Well, what was the question before I go. I saw.

[Sebas]

Yeah, no, it's.

[Evan]

Okay.

[Sebas]

So my question was it's. It's a beautiful thing that this white guy, to be educating me on it. It's actually really cool. It's really a beautiful thing. Like, maybe. I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but, like, you educate us and it's kind of cool. It's almost like, how can I explain it? Because all my friends who know who you are. Yeah, we're Mexican, Salvadorian, Peruvian. And we all kind of look up to the things that you have to say and for like, being white, like, to me, like, that's a beautiful thing that you're doing.

[Evan]

Well, thank you for that. It's important to know LA is a Mexican city. Let's call it what it is. El Pueblo, like, it was founded, you know, by the Spanish as a Mexican city. And then LA became Mexican and like, Mexican American. And by the way, just a quick tangent. The fact that the Mexican American War, parts of it, battles were fought in Los Angeles, is a trip to me. Right across the street from Universal City. I think the street is Lankershim. I'm terrible with directions. By the way. There's something called Campo de Cauenga right. Right across the street. And that building, which gets. And I've done stories on and talked to the docents there, gets a dozen visitors per weekend. Universal Studios gets 3 million people per year right across the street. But that Campo de Cuenga is where the treaty was signed, the Treaty of Cuenga, to put down the. The weapons, essentially leading to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican American War. And it's right there in the San Fernando Valley because there was battles in Montebello, San Gabriel river, and right there in the Cahuenga Pass, they were fighting the Mexican American War. But to your point, it's a Mexican city and you go outside anywhere, like, dude, like, whether it's taco vendors or just looking at the people or stores or whatever it is, like, this is a proud Mexican city and you need to honor that heritage and that history. And it's part. If you love la, then you have to love every single culture that's a part of it. And it's not just Mexican, it's Mexicans, it's Filipinos, it's Armenians, it's Persians, it's Koreans, it's Chinese, Japanese. Like all these are so important. And they make up what L. A is. And every day I wake up and you see the, the blue, gorgeous sky. It's not a cliche. We're this time in the winter time, it's going to be 78 degrees and you see palm trees. I don't care if you're in Boyle Heights or Granada, you're going to see a blue sky and palm trees wherever you are. And if you love this city, you have to love the people of this city and to, to love these people. Like, like, I want to understand Jewish history. Like, even the funny thing, I was not a religious Jew. My parents are hippies. So I got, they asked me when I was 8 years old, do you want to go to Hebrew school or do you want to play baseball? What do you think an 8 year old is going to say? Play baseball court? And that was the end of my, like, Jewish education, heritage.

[Josh]

The fact they give you a choice is kind of crazy.

[Evan]

Well, because they were hippies so they, I think they only did it to check that box. I don't even think they wanted. But the thing is, even with Jewish history, it's like, dude, there's a spot right behind Dodger Stadium. Used to be a plaque, but all these plaques are getting stolen, unfortunately, because they're copper. And that's a whole different conversation. But there was black. It was the first Jewish location in Los Angeles, which was a cemetery. And again, the city evolves. But every single culture has this history in Los Angeles and has their foothold in Los Angeles. And honestly, just celebrating it and recognizing that is something that gets me excited. Because if you love la, you have to love the people of la.

[Sebas]

So wow.

[Josh]

I love that just being like, how much you know about la. Like, what are some, like, what are some gems that you personally love about la? Like, who does, what does Evan love about la? LA top three spots.

[Sebas]

Before we go to the top three spots, we'll go on a quick break.

[Josh]

Oh, let's do it.

[Sebas]

Because it's about to be commercial time, which means funny ads. And then we gotta have a cliffhanger real quick so we can have Evan come on and tell us his favorite three spots in la.

[Josh]

Let's do it.

[Sebas]

Which is what? Like food wise or just visiting wise? Entertainment?

[Josh]

Both. We'll tap into both. Why not? Okay, sounds good.

[Sebas]

Why not? Do you guys mind if we go on commercial break?

[Josh]

It's your show, baby.

[Evan]

Let's do it.

[Sebas]

We'll be right back, everybody. Evan from LA in a minute. There it is, the one and only. Guys. Spark something uncommon this holiday with just the right gift from Uncommon Goods. We spoke about it last time, showed it the daily struggle during the holidays. November, December, even a little bit of January. What kinds of gifts am I gonna be gifting? Well, it's easy. We found a website where you can find uncommon goods that are great.

[Josh]

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[Sebas]

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[Josh]

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[Josh]

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[Sebas]

Should I tell them?

[Josh]

I mean, I guess.

[Sebas]

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[Evan]

We're all out of the ordinary.

[Josh]

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[Sebas]

Yes, it is.

[Josh]

I'm not going to lie. Being an adult has its high points. A lot of high points. You know what I'm saying? Like eating ice cream for dinner. I do that all the time, my.

[Sebas]

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[Josh]

Because you know what? We adults.

[Sebas]

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[Josh]

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[Sebas]

Yeah, it's a lot of responsibility.

[Josh]

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[Sebas]

I know.

[Josh]

I never know what doctor to use. I don't know if they're credible.

[Sebas]

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[Josh]

Yeah, exactly.

[Sebas]

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[Josh]

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[Josh]

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[Sebas]

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[Josh]

That's z o c-o c dot com. All right guys, we're back. Welcome to Platica. We have our incredible host, co host Sebas, and our guest Evan. LA in a minute. I just finished asking Evan what are Evan's favorite places in la? Like what are your places that you hold dear to your heart, that you love? Whether that be restaurants and we can mix and match or just like scenic, historic kind of places.

[Evan]

This is the truth. There's nothing I like more in LA than driving around on the freeways. And my wife and I do this as a hobby. And I know it sounds crazy because of traffic, but the freeways get you everywhere and they get you these perspectives, right? So let's say we take the, the 101 up through to the 5 and then you go around that like back view when you're in Boyle Heights or going into Downey and Montebello and those communities where you get to see LA from the, from the other side. And then like you're. And I just love seeing la. And the thing is, like every community, like we always say, you can get off every, anywhere and have Like a great meal and see people and walk around. People say LA is not a walkable city, but every single neighborhood has walkable streets. But to answer your question, what do I hold near and dear Gala gets one of my favorite restaurants.

[Sebas]

That's in Koreatown.

[Evan]

Yeah, well, Oaxacan corridor. Unofficially, the Oaxacan corridor, Ventura Boulevard. I gotta say, I'm a Valley guy. Let's call it what it is. I love Ventura Boulevard as well. Sushi roll. My son is a big, like, sushi kid. So, like, we try to go to different restaurants. And by the way, Sushi Row on ventura Boulevard, there's 84 sushi restaurants in a 1212 block stretch. That's why it's called Sushi Row. And it's the highest concentration of sushi restaurants anywhere outside of Japan, really. So I think that's pretty cool.

[Sebas]

What streets is that by again?

[Evan]

So basically between. Let's call it Laurel, to like right past cold water. Like, like. Yeah, yeah. So many sushi restaurants. This is. I'm going to take some heat for this, but I'll be honest. Recently I've fallen in love with Highland Park.

[Josh]

Okay.

[Evan]

And I know that Highland park isn't. Is a lightning rod because of gentrification.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Evan]

But the truth is there's some classics spots there. Highland park bowl, which I know used to be Mr. T's bowl, but you go inside there and it's like stepping back in time.

[Sebas]

Is that where there's like only six lanes and it almost looks like a cathedral in there.

[Evan]

Yes.

[Sebas]

Yeah, I've been there.

[Evan]

Absolutely. In the light.

[Sebas]

Gorgeous.

[Evan]

You're not.

[Sebas]

You're not gonna find anywhere like that in Los Angeles.

[Evan]

Oldest bowling alley in LA, 1927. It opened as a speakeasy. The only reason there's even a bowling alley there is because that was an excuse that they had to speak easy up top during prohibition. I love that the original Forever 21 is in Highland Park. Forever 21 is a great, like, American dream story. And one of the thing I try to focus on. This kind of goes back to your question about, like, Mexican. Every ethnicity has this, but there are so many, like, American dream stories of immigrants that came in, like King Taco man, like Raul Martinez, who didn't have enough money for bus fare to get across the border. But he was talking with his wife. Should we go back to Mexico City? Somebody paid for his bus fare, settles in MacArthur park, goes to the soccer matches at the park, starts grilling up some carne asada. People are like, let me have some. Yeah. So he's like, grilling up carne asada. People are like, oh, can I get some? He started selling it. Then he had this crazy idea to buy an ice cream truck and outfit it with, like, a plancha so he could start doing tacos from the truck. And that was the birth of the modern taco truck. So LA has so many of these, like, American dream stories. And it's like, Porto's the Cuban. Like, dude, we're talking Castro, right? And, like, the Porto family had to. Raul Porto was not imprisoned, but taken out of his, like, cushy job when Castro took over, made to work in labor. And then Rosa would make these pastries and all this kind of stuff under the table. In Cuba, she trade ingredients and she trade her stuff and, like, make these pastries. But when the government would come, she'd have to hide everything, blah, blah. They won some kind of, like, lottery to go to Los Angeles, which had a big Cuban community in the early 70s. And she started doing the same thing out of her apartment in Echo Park. And there's these old pictures of her, like, cooling the pastries on. On her children's, like, using the racks on the children's bed. And the children would, like, sleep on the floor, and she'd make these cakes, but people would buy these pastries, and that was, like, the birth of Porto's. So those places hold a special place in my heart. But there's all kinds of, like, everything is an LA American dream story. And I truly believe that LA is the home of these American dream stories. But to answer your question, like, places that, like, I truly hold dear. Look, I go back to the UCLA campus, like, once a year, at least just to walk, right? Because it's so beautiful and so fun. But I like exploring, man. It's like the new stuff. Like, again, to me, Highland park is new, and I know it's old. And I hear stories because I have a close friend, Rudy, Shout out. He grew up in Highland park, and he's like, bro. He tells me the story. He says, my mom's. My mom got a call from my friend's mom. Because I was walking home like this, looking over around my shoulder, and she's like, yo, to my mom. To his mom, your son is tweaking. Like, you gotta look like he's doing drugs. Like, he's like, bro, I wasn't tweaking. He's like, I just always had to walk, watch my back, because the Avenues and 47, and, like, the gangs over there were, like, so active, insidious. Yeah, but he's like that was Highland Park. So he's like. I laugh.

[Josh]

Wow.

[Evan]

He tells you that you like love Highland park now and you're like walking around having a good time at night. I used to love the west side.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Like a big like want guy anymore. Downtown is cool.

[Sebas]

Yeah. But downtown seems like you're a Valley guy though.

[Evan]

I know. Like, like the truth is the Valley. Look, home is where the heart is, man. Yeah, I get it.

[Josh]

Do you know what I'm so impressed by with you is how much information you're able to retain and like just.

[Sebas]

Tell stories I could never.

[Josh]

That's how I know you're so passionate. Because it's like so ingrained in who you are.

[Evan]

I appreciate that. I mean, I mean there's more, there's. I've forgotten more than you know, blah, blah, blah. But like, yes, because it's, it's exciting to me. It's a sense of pride.

[Sebas]

Like, look, you can hear the passion.

[Evan]

I don't want to like make this a Hallmark thing, but one of my favorite things about L. A I don't want to talk about too much, but the fast food thing always makes me laugh and blows my mind because McDonald's, Taco Bell, Panda Express, Wiener schnitzel, Del Taco, hot dog on a stick, fat burger, in and out. Like all these place, Bob's Big. But they all came from Los Angeles and every one of those like has a great story. Like again, Panda Express you never really think about. Panda Express started as Panda Inn, which still exists, but it's like a sit down restaurant. But it's, it's a love story between the, the, the, the founders. They met at college in Missouri, right? Like, and they like just hit it off, came back to la. They opened the first Pan Express in Glendale Galleria and that was one of the first. I didn't know that that was one of the first chains anywhere to actually automate everything and like automate the day because they both studied like data science, right? So Penn Express, besides the fact that I love Pen Express by the way, for the record, so good but same and they keep it like fresh and they, but they also like innovated in the fast food industry because again they were one of the first to collect data or to automate like your order with. There was always registers and stuff like that, but they computerized it and that again comes from la. You don't think about that. You're like, yo, I just want my orange chicken. Or like, you know, whatever. Yeah, the chow main.

[Sebas]

And honestly, I'M a Panda Express just because of that today, dude.

[Evan]

And I'm telling you so many of these stories like Taco Bell, Taco Bell was started by Glenn Bell. Like, okay, cool. This white guy like started. But the reason he started is because he had a place called Bell's Burgers.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

In San Bernardino. And across the street was Meatlock Cafe that sold Tacos Dorados. And like he was like, what's the big. What is this all about? Went over and tried them and he's like, I can make these and kind of do it better, you know, was his thing. So it's like a little bit like.

[Sebas]

It wasn't a documentary before. I think it was like McDonald's and talk. They were talking about McDonald's and Taco Bell at the same time and they kind of told that story. He kind of bit what they were doing.

[Evan]

But dude, I got to tell this just because one of my favorites, McDonald's everybody thinks came from San Bernardino. Ray Kroc, the movie, the founder, all that kind of stuff. But the first McDonald's was actually in L. A. No, the oldest ones in Downey. And that one's dope.

[Josh]

But that was.

[Evan]

But the. It was at the Monrovia airport and it was called the airdrome. And the McDonald brothers dad opened the restaurant selling burgers, fries and orange juice. All you could drink orange juice because back in the day oranges weren't. It wasn't as commonplace as it was now. But he started a place called the Airdrome at the Monrovia airport which is this octagonal building and they sell oranges, burgers, fries. The Suns were like, yo, all the business is down at Route 66 in San Bernardino. They picked. They physically like lifted on a truck. Obviously the building moved it to San Bernardino. Oh wow, shut it down. We're like, forget the orange juice, we're going to sell barbecue. So it was McDonald's barbecue for like the first six years it existed. Barbecue was too laborious and intensive. They cut down the menu. Burgers, fries, shakes and the rest was history. But McDonald's started in L. A at the Monrovia airport. And like uncovering stuff like that, I get so cool, so excited to find that kind of stuff. And like so every time I'm driving around these fast food places in n out invented the modern drive thru. Esther and Harry Snyder. Harry was a tinkerer, created the two way speaker in his garage. Fat burger, last one. This is one of my favorite fat burger and this is a great LA American dream story. Lovey Yancey An African American female from Bastrop, Texas, in the 19 foot racist ass America in the 1940s, single black American female, comes from Bastrop, Texas, comes to la, was like, I'm gonna open a burger stand with eight stools with some like leftover plywood. And it was called Mr. Fat Burger. She opened it with her boyfriend, actually called Mr. Fat Burger. For four or five years she was selling these dope fat burgers with the fat fries. And then she like, her and her boyfriend had a falling out. She took Mr. Off of the name and became Fat Burger. But the thing is that became a billion dollar business by the 1990s. And she was also one of the biggest benefact benefactors to the City of Hope. Like the, the hospital City of Hope. Oh, and for sickle cell anemia. She's donated like millions of dollars and now she doesn't own fat burger. It's, you know, she sold it. But like to think that like in the 1940s, a single African American female started something that would become a billion dollar business straight from Los Angeles. So it's like L. A is so full of stories like that. And that's like again, what you celebrate. So near and dear to my heart, all of it. Because I just want to keep exploring and finding out these stories because everywhere you go, there's something super fucking cool and fun and historical and like.

[Sebas]

Yeah, and speaking about everywhere you go, I mean, just like for example, McDonald's, right? Everywhere you go in the world. Yeah, there's a McDonald's. So technically everywhere you go, there is Los Angeles.

[Evan]

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

[Sebas]

Isn't that wild?

[Josh]

Wild?

[Sebas]

I'm talking about anywhere you go. I was in a wedding though, because.

[Josh]

Of the whole story that happened that unfolded with like the founder and taking record the way he kind of like.

[Sebas]

Yeah, yeah, sure, but like the.

[Evan]

But still came from LA and there always la. Look, all these stories are fraught with, look, the winners, right? History. What do they say? Like the history is written by the winner.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Evan]

So, but, but that's what I want to do is like uncover the truth and the real story. And look, LA is everywhere because one thing we haven't talked about is the entertainment capital world and all that came from la. But I love this story. Hollywood movies, of course it started in la, right? No, so I love this, that movies actually were invented by Thomas Edison. Same guy invented the light bulb.

[Sebas]

I didn't know that.

[Evan]

In New Jersey he was the first one to do like moving. He invented motion pictures. Really? But he didn't do it as like a creative endeavor and have this vision that he's going to like, create the fucking Godfather, you know what I mean? Like, whatever. So what he would do is people, they used to have these things called Nickelodeon, right, where you'd put in a nickel and you'd have to twist the crank and like watch the movie. But people had more visionaries, had bigger ideas. But Thomas Edison held all the patents.

[Josh]

Oh, wow.

[Evan]

So these people got smart and it was in New Jersey in the 1890s. And they're like, I need to escape his patent lawyers. I need to go as far as I can. I want to make movies because I have this video. I want to go as far as I can. So they came to California basically to escape the. The tentacles of Thomas Edison's patent lawyers and they. And of course the weather. I mean, again, it's always, always comes back to the weather in the climate like la. So magical. But like, that's what's funny is people think Hollywood, of course LA is where movies started, but like, again, it comes from, from somewhere else in LA just like makes it its own and ramps it up and makes it just like. I love amazing things.

[Sebas]

That's incredible.

[Josh]

That's so crazy. Yeah, that's so crazy. Who was the guy that you were referring to? The one that brought it to la.

[Evan]

So selling Poly Scope was the first theater in, I mean, first theater, first production studio in la. Francis Boggs was the guy. I forget Selleck's first name, but Francis Boggs is basically the guy who we owe modern day moving. And it was actually in Silver Lake, not Hollywood, except that part of Silver Lake was called Edendale. So the first, like studios in LA were in a place called Edendale, which exists. There's actually an Edendale Avenue, but we know it is Silver Lake. Yeah.

[Sebas]

Wow, that's crazy.

[Josh]

You're like an LA encyclopedia.

[Sebas]

Having Evan here is like, for me because normally, like, obviously we film all the time, but to have somebody where you actually. We listen to everybody. Right. I don't want to come out like, we don't listen to nobody. But just listening to you on the podcast is just so amazing. Just to hear you out because it's just so interesting.

[Evan]

Well, thank you.

[Sebas]

It's honestly so. And like I said, beautiful. Because the things that you say, you know, I would never expect the things that you've taught me. Not even just today, even like since I've been following you, you know, to be you, to be this guy. Hopefully we. This can become a friendship later. I'm Gonna invite you out to dinner. I'm gonna, you know, hey, come over. I'm in the Valley.

[Evan]

If you're in the Valley, let's go. That's what I say, bro.

[Sebas]

You know, let's go to the Wash.

[Josh]

Let's go sightsee at the Wash. Yeah.

[Sebas]

Like, take me. I'm gonna want to kick it. Yeah. What do you want to do?

[Evan]

I don't know. You tell me. Hold on. I gotta give a shout out to the Wash, because this is important. Part of the LA River. There's something you guys know about the Great Wall of Los Angeles?

[Sebas]

No.

[Evan]

Everybody who's watching, listen to this and go see it in Valley Village, right on Coldwater. And I want to say Oxnard. You don't know this?

[Josh]

No. The paintings. The murals?

[Evan]

Yes, the mural. It's. First of all, it's the longest mural in the world. It's more than half a mile long.

[Sebas]

In the world is in, bro.

[Josh]

It's insane.

[Evan]

Yes, in the world, dude. Judy Baca. So in the 1970s, there's this woman named Judy Baca who's now getting her renown. Is this. Have you ever seen this one of this?

[Sebas]

That's on your street, isn't it? On the left when I go Cold water.

[Evan]

Yeah, bro.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Tells that street Los Angeles.

[Sebas]

There's like a park, right? There's a park.

[Josh]

Yes. There's like a little park area.

[Evan]

Parkish.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Sebas]

Okay.

[Evan]

You can walk it, but, like, there's.

[Sebas]

Always people there hanging out.

[Evan]

It's right by Grant High and Valley College is what it is. But this tells the history of Los Angeles from prehistoric times, meaning, like saber tooth tigers and stuff, through current. And they're adding two new segments to the mural. She's working on it at LACMA right now, but through the eyes of underrepresented populations, meaning women and minorities that never got their due during the history telling of Los Angeles. But in the 1970s, she took a group of juvenile delinquents from Silma. You know, the. The juvie over in Sylmar. She took a group of juvenile artists to start painting this in the 1970s as like, a public works project through her group called spark. Forget what spark. It's. It's an acronym. But yeah, it was painted by, like, kid. Not kid, little kids, but. And then it's been developed and been evolving, but that's like the truest depiction of Los Angeles there is. And it's right there in the wash. That's right.

[Sebas]

It's on the left when I go to your house.

[Evan]

And it's totally underappreciated, but it's finally starting to get its due. So.

[Josh]

Yeah, so you walk on the actual part.

[Evan]

No, you can't walk in on the riverbed, which would be super dope.

[Sebas]

Wow.

[Evan]

But yes, LA is full of like this in Glendale. I just gotta give one more. It's one of my favorite in Glendale. The world's largest. The world's largest religious painting. It's called the Crucifixion. Again, I'm not a religious guy. But inside Forest Lawn in Glendale, there is a hall of Crucifixion, but it's a like thousand seat amphitheater just staring at this painting. It's the world's largest religious painting. It's 190ft long, 45ft tall in and of itself. That's like impressive. But okay. I'm not into religion. Who gives a. Like whatever, dude. You see it and the size of it and the magnitude and the detail. It's a beautiful work by this artist from Poland. But what makes this so cool is the story is this guy in Poland, he needed to get the blessing of the Pope to paint this thing. And it was so big he couldn't display it. He got to display it once in Russia. He got a call from the St. Louis World Fair in 1904. Come display your painting. So he takes a boat across the Atlantic Ocean, wraps the painting around a telephone pole, because that's the only way that you could like transport something like that. Gets to New York, gets to St. Louis, goes in, takes all his works, by the way, not just that one. He's at the exhibition hall. Exhibition hall wasn't big enough to hold the paintings, so the painting never got to get displayed. But he got to put his other works up. Well, guess what? There was a fire that destroyed all of his other paintings, but luckily he still had that one. So. So he's heartbroken, but he's like, I have my masterpiece. Gets to New York, he's going to go back to Poland. He didn't have the money to pay like the tariff or whatever to get it back to Poland. He had to go back see his family. He had to leave the painting there. He never got to see it again. It was never displayed again until it was discovered in the basement of an opera house in Chicago 50 years later by this guy Eaton, who ran Forest Lawn. And he was so moved by the painting and the size and the story that he built an amphitheater just to see, for people to enjoy. And look at this paint. And I'm telling you, I've seen it. I'm not a religious guy or whatever, but it's mind blowing.

[Josh]

You've seen. I like, seen it.

[Evan]

And again, la.

[Josh]

And they tell this story too, and it's fascinating.

[Evan]

And again, I don't like the term. Hidden gems is kind of like overplayed. But.

[Josh]

No, this is a hidden gem.

[Evan]

There's so many.

[Josh]

I saw this within the last like 5. I was born and raised in LA as well. And I remember when I saw. I was like, this has been here this whole time.

[Evan]

That's what blows my mind again, going back, we never, for whatever reason in la, it's never about the history and culture. It's about the celebrity and what's going on and what's hot. So we gotta go.

[Josh]

You gotta go.

[Evan]

It's dope. It's dope.

[Josh]

And all you do, there's chairs and it's just the pain.

[Sebas]

What city is this again?

[Evan]

Glendale. Yeah.

[Sebas]

Oh, in Glendale?

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Josh]

Dude, it takes a while to take it all in and then you're watching and there's like stories within it and stuff like that.

[Evan]

Yes.

[Josh]

It's crazy, dude.

[Evan]

I want to tell two facts just. Just for my sports fans out there. You guys know about Dodger Stadium and the elementary school, of course. No, okay.

[Sebas]

Not the elementary school.

[Evan]

So in Dodger Stadium. And again, I'm a big fan. Dodger fan. World Series Shout Out Mo Freddy Show. Hey, I mean, dude, don't even get.

[Sebas]

Us started on the Dodger.

[Evan]

Okay, but that's. But one thing that. Again, I didn't uncover it. But one thing that I. I found out doing research is there's an elementary school buried under third base. The third base foul territory in Dodger Stadium because we know the story about eminent domain and how Chavez review. And by the way, it's not the Dodgers fault, by the way, the. The. I'm not justifying it. But the three communities that were destroyed for. To make way for Dodgers Day, they were originally. It was supposed to be a housing development. It wasn't like the Dodgers came in and did I. I'm just. Because I'm a Dodger fan.

[Sebas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Evan]

People point the finger at the Dodge, but the fact is people were forcefully removed and it was terrible. And in the building of Dodger Stadium after they. They displaced all those people. There's an elementary school there called. I want to say it was Palo Verde Elementary School that they just bulldozed. They didn't even bulldoze it. They buried it, the elementary school, to flatten the ground and that still sits somewhere under the foul territory in third Bayside. A Dodger stadium.

[Josh]

Kind of creepy.

[Evan]

That's what I'm saying. So to reconcile that as a Dodger fan, right. And somebody who's married to a Mexican whose families were immigrants from Juanusco. Sakatecas, by the way, shout out juanusco. Tiny town, 1200 people. But it's tough to kind of reconcile. But again, like, there's that healing and recognition and Fernando Valenzuela, you know, who kind of brought the fans back. But it's worth acknowledging. And I do think the Dodgers need to do some kind of like, acknowledgment.

[Josh]

I agree.

[Evan]

But on a different note, Lakers, one of my favorite things, and this one literally blew my mind. Where did the Lakers come from before la?

[Sebas]

Minneapolis, right?

[Evan]

Minneapolis Lakers.

[Sebas]

Yeah. Dude, am I right or wrong?

[Evan]

So they did come from Minneapolis, but they started as the Detroit Gems. So the Lakers actually started in Detroit. Which person my age growing up remembers the Lakers Pistons battles and how much we hated the Detroit Pistons? And it's again, it's funny to me that such a high profile thing like the Lakers talk about Lakers non stop. Magic Johnson, Kareem Will Chamberlain, everybody knows the history, but like, we don't even know that they like came from Detroit before they're from Minneapolis. So there's so many just little tidbits and facts like that about everything in la. And like, that's the stuff that like, really gets me. Like.

[Sebas]

No, I love that. I love that. Damn.

[Josh]

So cool.

[Evan]

We have the fast five questions, you know. No, it's fast. No fast fire.

[Sebas]

When I'm talking fastish fastest. So we're gonna throw you some, some questions. And we kind of just had to do them fast.

[Evan]

I'll try. I'll try my best.

[Sebas]

All right, you want to go first?

[Josh]

Yeah. Favorite fast food spot.

[Evan]

Look in and out's the easy answer. But if you want to know the absolute truth and it's not from L. A, ironically, Jack in the box. Because I will go crazy. Dude, Jack in the box. Spicy chicken sandwich, seven piece jalapeno.

[Sebas]

Evans from la in a minute would be a Jack in fan.

[Evan]

Dude. Jalapeno poppers, seven piece Jalapeno poppers four times. Why do they have the best egg roll Sourdough Jack. My wife is the big egg roll person. And like six things of ranch sourdough Jack, my boy. Like, it's like a 4,000 calorie meal. But honestly, if you put a gun to my head. Jack in the box. Number One fast.

[Josh]

Where's Jack in the Box from?

[Evan]

San Diego. San Diego. I wished they were from la, cuz I couldn't wait to do that story. But they from San Diego. Yeah. Damn. We love Go look at the old Jack in the Box logo, by the way. That used to be a literal, like. And the head was kind of freaky. It was like a sc. I was like, that was your logo.

[Sebas]

That's why it makes sense why the Padres have the Jack in a Box head at their stadium. That's why I was like, why they get that?

[Josh]

Oh, but it's from there.

[Evan]

Wow.

[Sebas]

I want that at Dodger Stadium, you know, that's why they have it there.

[Evan]

Dang.

[Sebas]

The only thing that came came out of San Diego.

[Josh]

That was good.

[Sebas]

That was good. Bl.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Sebas]

Wow. Yeah. Sour Joe. Sour Joe Sourdough Jack here.

[Josh]

It's my favorite. I get for loving it.

[Evan]

I'm like, bro, I like the ultimate cheeseburger.

[Josh]

The sourdough, the tomato, the cheese, the bacon.

[Sebas]

I just think.

[Evan]

And the crunch. Because the sourdough bread gives you that little like, crunch.

[Josh]

Nice and toast.

[Sebas]

I'm just the ultimate cheeseburger guy.

[Evan]

Which ain't nothing, dude. Everything on the menu is dope, but.

[Josh]

They put that over the sour.

[Sebas]

Their breakfast is fire.

[Josh]

Yeah, their breakfast is fire, man.

[Sebas]

All right, favorite LA fun fact.

[Evan]

I mean, I know they're all my babies. I'll tell you two that I love la. Okay, let's just go on. Yes, for one. I think it's funny because la's, it's trying to build up the mass transit and you know, we're struggling a little bit. We have the trains. But I'm going to tell you, this too is like, listen for people. And there are a lot of people are like, mass transit and like, forget the car. I'm like, bro. I lived in Valley Village and commuted to El Segundo. It was an hour 15 there, hour and a half back, and I wanted to fucking chew myself every day. So one day I was like, oh, I'll take the train. Two and a half hours with two transfers. I'm like, you can't do that. And it's getting better, it's getting bigger. But mass transit, it's necessary and we need to keep building it. But it's tough to fully adopt it. But here's the fact is Los Angeles was the mass transit capital of the world in the 1919s, 1920s into the 1930s. Had 1500 different train stops, railway stops, more than New York subway has today. That LA was Covered. And again, you guys probably seen Roger Rabbit know about the red cars and like, the rumor that Goodyear and all these companies, like, shut down the trains because they wanted cars and blah, blah, blah for years. But to think about LA being literally the mass transit capital of the world, can't even imagine compared to what it is now is, like, hilarious. So I love, like, busting out that fast.

[Sebas]

Fact.

[Evan]

I know that's my favorite.

[Josh]

If we can get it back to that, that would be very interesting to see.

[Evan]

So. But dude. What? Good luck. Because here's what I always say, because you can do it. You keep building rail, but you need stops. Let's say you live in Sylmar. It can't just be. Okay, there's a. There's a one stop in Sylmar. No, because now Sylmar's. All these neighborhoods, all these communities are so big. So you're still gonna need to drive or Uber or ride your bike or walk or whatever. Like, it's. It's tough, man. We're working on, but it's. It's a big, big endeavor.

[Sebas]

But yeah, most underrated neighborhood.

[Evan]

You know, I used to say Boyle Heights, but I've talked about it so much that I don't think. And by the way, Boyle Heights, one of my favorite neighborhoods.

[Sebas]

You made it. Not underrated no more.

[Evan]

I mean, I'm not saying I did. Look, Boyle Heights and San Pedro were the two that I quote, unquote. I'll say I discovered for myself.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

That I didn't really spend a lot of time in, like, growing up and going there and hanging out, walking around and seeing all the different things and people. Those are the ones that, like, blew my mind and opened up my eyes that these are like, really special neighborhoods. I like Downey Shout out. My wife's cousins live in Downey. Downey's got a lot of, like, good stuff and fun little spots to go. Chris and Pitts is out there, which, by the way, used to be the barbecue king of LA is no longer.

[Sebas]

Everybody knows. Know somebody that lives in Downey.

[Josh]

I know. You know, from la, everybody.

[Sebas]

That's another fun fact. Everybody knows if you live in LA. Exactly. You know, one person lives in Downey 100.

[Evan]

You know what? I'll say Atwater Village is underrated because there's some fun stuff to do there. You have the equestrian, like a horse. There's an equestrian village, which I'm like, how are. There's these equestrian zones horses in la Again, Sylmar keeps coming up. Sylmar is an Equestrian, but Atwater village. But you got easy access to the river. And it's a wild part of the river over there. Relatively wild part of the river over there, which I kind of love. I'll say Atwater Village. Underrated, but can I say the Valley just as a whole. I definitely tired of people not including. I saw Eater in la. That's like best restaurants in la. Really? You couldn't have one in the valley. You couldn't. 1.8 million people. The valley would be the fifth largest city in the United States if it were its own city. And you're telling me there's not one restaurant, not one restaurant that's good enough to be on your list for 1.8 million people?

[Josh]

So that it would be the fifth.

[Evan]

Largest state if it was largest city. The San Fernando Valley, if it were its own city, would be the fifth largest city in the United States. 1.8 million people. Absolutely geographically bigger than Chicago.

[Sebas]

Wow. Well, we need to take that guy out.

[Evan]

Yeah, dude. Eater LA Times always disses the Valley. Like Valley doesn't get enough credit, man.

[Josh]

Yeah, Most overrated neighborhood like that. Boy, talk that.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

I gotta say, the west side, like my people. And again, I could say not Venice, though. I like Venice. Venice is dope. Santa Monica has some cool things. It does. Brentwood has some cool things. Yeah.

[Sebas]

And we're not saying they don't have cool things, but you're right. It's like, like you can go somewhere else.

[Evan]

The Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Santa Monica, like, crowd that think that, like, that's everything. I don't even need to leave. I got everything I want. I'm like, sure. But those are areas in LA that I don't feel comfortable. This is the way I put it, right? Where I'll go walk around in Van Nuys, in Montebello, in Torrance Harbor, Gateway, and like, be comfortable and have fun. When I'm in those neighborhoods, especially because, look, what I do is like, I guess you could say it's not embarrassing, but it's weird when you see somebody with their cell phone being like, you're like, okay, influencer guy. Like all those neighborhoods, I'm fine. And then people are like, cool. But like, when you go into, like the Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills area, people are just different. And people like, oh, there's this self importance there. And. And it kind of rubs in. I'm just not super comfortable.

[Josh]

I'm not mad at that answer.

[Sebas]

I get that too. I get that too.

[Evan]

Favorite musical artist ever or right now. Right now.

[Sebas]

It's fine.

[Evan]

Let's go.

[Josh]

Right now? Yeah.

[Evan]

You want to know the truth?

[Josh]

Right now.

[Evan]

Yeah. Coyote. My boys. Coyote Ladies love Guapo. Yeah. And Ricky Blanco. Okay. They're these rappers. You just had them on Lennox and I had them on my show because I've been following them and listening to them. I went to Rhyme Fest. They were the best act at Rhyme Fest. They have tracks with Be Real Shaq. Mario Lopez does, like, a little intro on one of them. But these dudes are. Listen, I grew up in la. West coast hip hop, Dre, like, Dog warranty, all that kind of stuff. They have that historical. Historical 30 years ago, but they have that sound of, like, that west coast hip hop.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

But somehow updated and modernized. And here's the two things. One from Hawthorne, which is where the Beach Boys came from. And I kind of love that, like, lineage where you look at the evolution of la, where you're like, the Beach Boys are like, this kind of music. And then like, 60 years later, you're like, no, this is what LA is like right now. So I kind of like that. But here's the thing. They're intelligent, they're dope, they're introspective. And like, some of their songs, like these two recent ones, they're just like the Instagram tracks. It's not stuff like on their album. But one of the dudes is like, I'm always on my phone scrolling and, like, ignoring the world around me, which we can all, like, agree. And then one of them's like, you're eating all this crap, all this fast food. It's like his kids in the video, he's got, like, an in and out rapper right there. So they talk about, like, real. Look, they talk about some, like, standard hip hop stuff. For real.

[Sebas]

Yeah.

[Evan]

But the intelligence is there, the vocabulary is there, and their rhyme schemes are dope. They're intricate and, like, just keeping it very la. And I feel that they represent, like, the culture in LA in 2024. So shout out Coyote. Also shout out to Obed Padilla, who's, like, a little bit. He does a lot of hip hop stuff, kind of sing more live instrumentation. And Eddie Zuko.

[Josh]

Oh, Eddie Zuko. We had him on the pod. He's great, man. We had him on, like, maybe a year and a half ago at the old studio.

[Evan]

So that. So then you'd like. Then for sure you'd like Obed Padilla and Coyote. Honestly, check them out. The new album, L liens. Really great answer.

[Sebas]

Definitely. I've seen them all over my social media platforms.

[Evan]

They're dope.

[Sebas]

I wonder if he goes by Coyote or Coyote.

[Evan]

Coyote.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Sebas]

Cool.

[Josh]

Last question. Favorite bar?

[Sebas]

Favorite LA bar. This is somebody that. This. This answer that you're about to give is really important because what's the first question that somebody has when they're visiting la?

[Josh]

Some cool.

[Sebas]

Us being on social media, I get this DM all the time. What bar should I go to? Okay, but I want to know where you.

[Evan]

We had.

[Josh]

And you can give us more than one.

[Evan]

For years it was tough because bars become scenes. I don't love scenes. And even if it's cool for a minute, it gets blown up and then it's totally like, well, can't go there anymore. And then it changes. There's a spot called Oibar. All right. Oibar on Moore park and Whitset. Not even on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

[Josh]

Moore park in Wits. But wow.

[Evan]

That's what. So it used to be an actual oyster bar in the 60s and 70s. And it's a low slung, total dive bar. The ceilings are like, is this next.

[Josh]

To a cactus taco?

[Evan]

It's down that there's two cactuses. Cacti down more park one. Either way, it's not just a do bar. And yes, they got mixologist and cocktails. By the way, I'm just a tequila, soda and lime guys. I don't need, like special mixology. But they do have the mixology. It's all this kind of stuff.

[Sebas]

Stuff.

[Evan]

But the bartenders are dope. They know you. They learn your name, they learn your drinks. I love that. But here's the kicker. The chef there is this guy named Jeff. He owns a sandwich shop in Highland park called Jeff's Table, and it became, like, famous for their sandwiches. But this is his passion project. It's the cr. It's gonna sound crazy, but the food is Japanese Jewish fusion. So you're like, what the hell did.

[Sebas]

He just try to find two Js that go together like, hey, guess what.

[Evan]

I'm gonna do, dude? Like matzo ball ramen.

[Sebas]

That's amazing. Or like, that's amazing.

[Evan]

Like the, like. What is it called? Musubi. Where it's like. But like, it'll be like gourmet almost.

[Sebas]

No way.

[Evan]

But not even gourmet. It's accessible and it's not trying to be like hoity toity. You can just. And again, you know good food when it's time. But it's just got that soulful feel and it's authentic and it's unlike anything else. But the scene is cool because again, it's just representative LA in that neighborhood.

[Josh]

Dude, it feels so underground. Like, I've passed by this spot so many times.

[Evan]

That's why.

[Josh]

And I've never really. It's never really drawn on my attention.

[Evan]

Oh, and it's not even that.

[Sebas]

A crab inside of a cheeseburger. What the.

[Evan]

Yeah, dude, it's off shelf crap. Absolutely. That's Oibar for sure. Number one. I wish I actually went there more. My wife and I wanted to go there yesterday. We couldn't make it, but like, shout out to Oibar for sure. My favorite bar.

[Sebas]

Oh, wow. Incredible.

[Josh]

I'm going. I'm going this Friday.

[Sebas]

I just have one more question for you, Evan. And. And I get this question all the time too, and it's really hard for me to answer, but you probably be really good at answering.

[Evan]

Go on.

[Sebas]

An alien comes to California. Los Angeles, to be specific. His first time. He's excited to visit. He's heard so much in the galactic news. Right.

[Evan]

Okay.

[Sebas]

And he meets up with you. He goes, evan, I want to hang out with you. What are we doing? And.

[Josh]

And I only have eight hours.

[Evan]

Oh, come on. You c. Friends come from New York. I can't even do LA in a weekend. Eight hours. See, here's the thing. The truth is, you got to do a Dodger game, right? But if it's eight hours now, that takes half that. I do think. Still going to Dodger games. I know. I do think you're so la, because to understand la, you. You gotta go.

[Sebas]

Because it's not even just about baseball. No, it's about the people, the scene. What's eating, the traffic.

[Josh]

That's part of it.

[Evan]

And how beautiful it is. Yeah, the mountains and like the palm trees and all this kind of stuff. So Dodger game is up there. Yeah, I agree. People would say the beach. And like, look.

[Josh]

What beach?

[Evan]

Look again. I was a Zuma kid growing up, but I don't even have Docweiler's. Like, fun. Because you can have fun stuff like that. Zuma's cool, but I don't know if I'd like.

[Sebas]

Nice.

[Josh]

You gotta see this.

[Sebas]

Like, no, because that you can. I mean, unless you're surfing.

[Evan]

Look.

[Sebas]

Or doing something like that. You gotta go in the water.

[Evan]

You gotta go get tacos. First and foremost. Like, and. And people say, what's your favorite taco? And I do have one personally, but. But they're all good. There's so many, like, taco spots in la. And like, sure, some are better than the other but like, if it's a homemade taco, and especially if they're making like the tortillas, like, they're gonna be awesome tacos.

[Sebas]

Guaranteed a good salsa.

[Evan]

So you gotta get. Oh, again, I'm into. I. I need rat. I like radish.

[Sebas]

Me too.

[Evan]

Like onions and cilantro. But I need radish too. But. So you go tacos, you go Dodger game.

[Sebas]

Hot take real quick. Would you rather have a shitty tortilla or shitty salsa? Tortilla or you have a shitty tortilla. Good salsa or a shitty salsa. Good tortilla. I would want a good salsa.

[Josh]

Same.

[Evan]

I think a shitty tortilla can up your whole experience, though. Like, if you ever had those tortillas that are almost stale.

[Josh]

Yeah, yeah.

[Evan]

So like, dad will literally up the entire.

[Josh]

I'm not.

[Evan]

I don't mind those bad salsa. You can leave it off and you'll be like, something's missing, but you can eat it.

[Sebas]

You're right.

[Evan]

If the tortillas. No, not right. That's a discussion. But the tortilla's like the whole thing is. Then you gotta eat it like with a fork and then it's not a taco anymore.

[Josh]

But I also love that experience too. I love tacos. I don't care how they come, bro. Yeah, dude.

[Evan]

So this is the. I think la, the magic of it is seeing the people and just experiencing the life. The fact that. And. And I'll tell you the truth, Dodger game, tacos, and then let's drive around, man. Because truthfully, there's something about this city. It's so low and expansive and people kind of talk shit about that. But it also gives the impression of what LA is, is this unlimited horizon. And whatever you can imagine is what you can make Los Angeles be for you. And you visualize that. Like, I always imagine coming from the valley, driving south, whether that's the 405 or the 5. Or like when you see the LA Basin just open up in front of you and you're like. It's so funny because in a city you get high rise buildings. You're like, used to seeing what a city is. But how do you make sense of that? As far as the eye can see, there's development, but there's also like trees and pockets of green. And like, yeah, on a nice day you can see the ocean and the mountains. Like what cities have a mountain range and a beach and palm trees and. And like, just unlimited. Like, that's why people fall in love with la, because it's anything you want it to be, and you can make it what you want it to be. And that's like Los Angeles. So let's take that alien, we're gonna go to a Dodger game, we're gonna get some tacos and we're gonna drive around till he needs to go back to the spaceship.

[Josh]

Dude, I, like I told you, born and raised in la, and I could never, ever see myself living in Los Angeles. But people have asked me all the time, where would you go? And I go, I would never leave la. I love la. This is my home. This is my heart.

[Evan]

Heart.

[Josh]

And I can never really explain why. I'm just gonna show them this video and I go, listen to this guy and he will tell you why I love LA so much, man, because I've always felt that, but I've never been able to put it into words. And you've just done it throughout this whole episode. So I appreciate that, bro.

[Evan]

Well, thank you. This is.

[Josh]

This is my heart. This is my home.

[Evan]

Greatest city on the globe. And there's something for everybody. I met somebody too, and sorry, if I could say one more thing. I met somebody on a walk. Walk. And like, or he was on a walk and he came up and we started talking and he says, you know, I came from Baltimore, I lived here for six years, and I hated it. I couldn't figure it out. I didn't know it. And you kind of hear, like, people like, I don't know, of course. And it is. It's hard to grasp sometimes. Like, I can see that there's a.

[Sebas]

Bunch of fake people there.

[Evan]

And all the negatives, they're true elements to that, right? Not everybody's fake. If you're in those areas I talked about earlier, you're gonna run into some of those fake people for sure. Sure. But he says, you know what it took? He's like, I found my people. And he's like, I realize that. He's like, in la, he's like, your people are here, you just gotta find them. And it doesn't matter what those people are, what you are, what you represent, what you love. LA has that, it has those people. And there's unlimited enjoyment. And it's a. It's a canvas for your creativity. Whatever you want it to be. LA can become. Come. That's like the beauty of Los Angeles.

[Sebas]

I love that.

[Josh]

Beautiful note to end on. Beautiful note.

[Sebas]

Evan, I really appreciate you being here, honestly. It's been a treat for Josh and myself, I'm sure for man Jess as well. Just Hearing you talk, being so passionate about Los Angeles got me kind of fired up.

[Josh]

And you just got your LA tattoo.

[Sebas]

And I just got my LA tattoo. Look, I show it to you. I feel like you appreciate it.

[Evan]

Of course, of course.

[Sebas]

These are my pastel pink.

[Evan]

Dude, I wore salmon socks the other day. Hey, you say passed up, why did you get that?

[Sebas]

The day they played. The day they eliminated the match.

[Evan]

The day they what?

[Sebas]

They eliminated the Mets. Sorry about it. By the way, we were at game.

[Josh]

Five in New York.

[Sebas]

In New York I was also at.

[Josh]

Game two and four and five.

[Evan]

Come on.

[Josh]

I swear, bro, it was unreal.

[Sebas]

It was unreal. Game two, that fifth inning.

[Josh]

What's the funnest baseball game I've ever, I've ever experienced, bro, we were there.

[Evan]

I went to game one, which was.

[Sebas]

Hey, honestly, hot take, dude.

[Evan]

The whole.

[Sebas]

Would you rather go to the Freeman grand slam game or the World Series or the.

[Evan]

The clincher, you mean?

[Sebas]

Yeah, game five.

[Evan]

Well, how was game five? I mean, insane.

[Sebas]

Yeah, but the thing, it was, it.

[Josh]

Was in New York.

[Evan]

Yeah, that's the one.

[Josh]

Mind you, bro, we had every LA was out there, dude.

[Evan]

LA.

[Josh]

I mean, we represented hard.

[Evan]

What do you think?

[Josh]

Percent what?% I would say 40.

[Evan]

Wow, that's dope.

[Josh]

That's dude for a dude in New York.

[Evan]

That's crazy because LA rolls deep and there's dude. That about Dodgers fans where people have to say they get there late, they leave early. That's a 20 year old. Dodger fans are the best fans in sports right now. And honestly, Eric Gagne, Yasil Puig, Manny Ramirez, they created this modern era of like Dodger fans because people were leaving early. But Eric Gagne was game over and throwing 100 miles an hour with like a 62 mile an hour. You had to see in the matchups with Bonnie and then Manny Wood and then Puig the wild horse. Like Dodgers, it all developed with the city. And honestly, Dodger fans are the greatest. Pantone294 Shout out absolutely, dude. But game one was incredible.

[Josh]

Here's what we're doing. Next year we're going to a Dodger game together.

[Evan]

Let's go, man.

[Josh]

Yeah, we gotta document it too, dude. Yeah, let's do it.

[Sebas]

We'll sit wherever too. Left field pavilion.

[Evan]

Listen, our seats for 31 for the Freddie Freeman game, we were in the back, back, right corner of the reserved 56. The top, not. Not the pavilion, the back back.

[Sebas]

Okay.

[Evan]

And it was like, you know, in theory, those aren't the seats you're gonna pick first. If you have the pickle. But the. Again, there's no bad seat in that entire stadium and the fans and the community and the atmosphere and the energy and my son was there and he was paying attention, like cheering so hard and going nuts and like, like after that grand. You know, it like everybody hugging and cheering. It's amazing.

[Sebas]

We talked about the game last week on the last week's episode and we just went on and on.

[Evan]

How beautiful your experiences.

[Sebas]

Yeah. Real quick.

[Evan]

I.

[Sebas]

My mom, I keep saying that story. My mom watched that game. My mom really got into watching baseball this year because, you know, you know, I'm kind of telling her, you know, watch the game.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Sebas]

And. And the next day she's like, mijo, like, that was incredible. I've never seen anything like that. That game. I said, said, mom, I'm glad you saw it because I doubt we'll see another game like that ever in our lives.

[Josh]

Yeah, dude. I mean, it's never even happened. You can't before.

[Sebas]

You can't write that.

[Evan]

Oh, yeah, no, that was.

[Sebas]

And that would only happen in Los Angeles.

[Evan]

That's right.

[Josh]

There it is, man.

[Evan]

Right?

[Josh]

Yeah, there it is.

[Sebas]

Evan, we really appreciate you.

[Josh]

Thank you so much for coming down, man. It was truly a pleasure having you guys follow Evan.

[Sebas]

Obviously you probably already do follow Josh.

[Josh]

And myself, so you can plug those in real quick.

[Evan]

LA in a minute. Just look up LA in a minute. Every platform, podcast. Podcast in a minute with Evan. Love it. But you look up LA in a minute, you'll. You'll find.

[Sebas]

Evan said, just look up LA a minute, you'll find me.

[Josh]

Google me.

[Evan]

Google me, son.

[Sebas]

And congratulations on all your success and thank you for everything that you actually do. You do.

[Josh]

I.

[Evan]

You.

[Sebas]

I. I don't know if you know this, but you probably do so much more to the community than you. Than you actually know.

[Evan]

Trying to look, my fifth grade, eighth.

[Sebas]

Grade, ninth grade teacher hasn't taught me as much as what you've taught me just by following your ass.

[Evan]

Well, thank you, thank you. I try. We're going to keep learning and keep expl. Man, it's. It's the greatest city on the globe. That is a fact.

[Josh]

LA in a minute, baby. Forever.

[Sebas]

LA in a minute, baby. We just had Evan for about one hour and something, so take that. Okay, everybody, enjoy the rest of your week. Josh, you got anything else to say?

[Josh]

I said, man, beautiful episode.

[Sebas]

Yeah, it's starting to feel like Christmas in here. Take care. Have a good day and night.

[Josh]

Love you guys.

[Sebas]

Bye. Bye. Imagine going on a blind date. With Evan day and night.