One morning a few months ago I was thinking about donuts. That seems normal right? Thinking about donuts in the morning. Especially if you consider it was me doing the thinking. Well anyway, I was wondering who has better donuts, New York or Los Angeles? So I did what anyone would do, I took to twitter to conduct an impromptu (and non-scientific) poll of the best spots in their respective cities. One place that numerous people called-out in the Greater Los Angeles area (I just like how that sounds, Greater Los Angeles) was Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood. And man, I have to agree. Randy’s makes some tasty donuts. After a long flight in LAX, nothing is better than stopping at Randy’s for a cup of coffee and a donut.

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When I was in L.A. a few weeks ago I stopped by to see the gents from Baxter of California at their then unfinished barber shop on LaCienega. Well today the veil has been lifted, and the new spot dubbed Baxter Finley, Barber & Shop, looks even better than I had anticipated. It is opening officially tomorrow, if you want to stop in for L.A.’s newest (and possibly best?) wet shave.

Baxter Finley, Barber & Shop | 515 N. LaCienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA.

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An unscientific survey of some of L.A.’s best burgers. Jonah and Palmer — the gents from Aether (who are friends, clients and advertisers on ACL) — and I decided to visit five (or so) burger destinations while I am on my left coast tour. The first stop, Umami Burger, was a place many had highly recommended. We met up at the outpost on La Brea for lunch and Umami did not disappoint.

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The Taschen New York store is directly across the street from my office and sometimes when I need to clear my head I’ll trot over there to flip through some of their beautiful books and drift off into another world. After I posted the old Kodachromes of L.A., a few people pointed me in the direction of Los Angeles, Portrait of a City and I was immediately sucked in to the amazing photography of an amazing city.

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There are only a handful of places that I would want to live in the United States. As it happens, Los Angeles is near the top of that list. I have a bunch of friends that have departed for Southern Calif., which coupled with the easy living continue to make the idea of living on the West Coast that much more enticing. I came across these vintage shots of L.A. and I thought they would be worth a post here. All photos are from the Neat Stuff Blog, who’s author is someone I share a philosophy about vintage images with.

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I went to Disneyland long before my family ever made it to Florida’s Disneyworld. In fact, for some reason I have more memories of going to Knotts Berry Farm as a kid than either of the massive Disney parks. No matter where you went as a kid, nothing is better than going to a theme park. My friend Sean sent me these beautiful 16mm Kodachrome home movies shot at Disneyland soon after the opening in 1956 and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to share them here. It is amazing to see the clarity and the color of the footage — a cinematic quality that disappeared into the 1970s and 1980s. Take a moment and escape into the good clean fun of Disney in the 1950s.

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It’s a fake. A replica, an impostor and I don’t care, it’s fucking cool. So is Nick.

Mr. Maggio aka Mr. A Time to Get stopped by my office in Beverly Hills (it’s actually my business partner Ali’s office) while I was working out that way last week. Eventually the conversation turned to cars and Nick told me about his Speedster. Growing up in Ohio there was a guy down the street from me that had a white Porsche 356 replica built on a Volkswagen chassis that I always loved. Nick’s car was custom built on an original 1956 VW frame by the guys at Automotive Legends in California, who also make reproduction versions of the Porsche 550 Spyder and a 550 Coupe. Speaking of the 550 Mr. Maggio says, “[I] test drove the 550 Spyder and it was crazy FAST.”

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The gents from the Los Angeles based brand Apolis Activism and I got together during my recent trip to the west coast to shoot the shit, drink German beer and hang out at their studio. Much has been said about Apolis in the press as of late, with the company garnering much praise for their collaborations with Filson, and more recently with vintage boardshorts maker Kanvas by Katin.

Walking into the company’s loft like offices (complete with bunk beds, kitchen and a bathtub full of surf boards) you almost start to feel jealous that you haven’t been invited to hang out sooner. The brothers Raan, Stenn and Shea (not the one pictured below, that is the other Shea) Parton were drawn to the industrial style office space in downtown LA’s “arts district” because of the fact that it is live / work facility. This unique set-up enabled the guys to keep the overhead relatively low while they worked on developing the burgeoning company.

Left to right: Apolis intern Kevin, Shea, plus brothers Stenn and Raan.

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I’m a sucker for that whole industrial salvage furniture look. The guys from Billykirk have it going on in their design studio. Tons of crazy old tools and machines salvaged mostly from factories in Los Angeles. If I lived out in LA I would be all over Sonrisa, Retro Office and especially a recent discovery, Cleveland Art. I know what you are thinking, why the hell is it named Cleveland Art when it is based in LA?

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The Maps & Intel page has been updated again, this time with Los Angeles bars and restaurants. This map is a whopper, the most comprehensive to date. The gastro-guide is a partnership with the excellent Kitsune Noir who contributed (along with his best friend Max; thank you Max) heavily to this. Happy dining!

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111299902334605203815.0004669520be1ddb6f023&ll=34.066434,-118.370358&spn=0.158591,0.297124&output=embed]

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I recently updated the Maps & Intel page with a handy guide to Los Angeles shopping. While the New York map has been on the site for a while, its LA centered counterpart has been long overdue. LA is one of my favorite places to shop and this map is a good starting point for anyone interested in doing their thing, materialistically. Please do send on suggestions and additions, this is only the beginning. Also, many thanks to Meagan for doing a lot of the legwork on the map. LA drinking and dining to follow.

Los Angeles Shopping Map (Men’s):

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111299902334605203815.000464b14f4db2f7e0458&ll=34.066701,-118.325125&spn=0.154222,0.348838&output=embed&s=AARTsJo57lnWP2uNkxKbChke-fWlxPuyEQ]

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One good thing about living in the greater Los Angeles area is the easy access to sun, surf, mountains and powder. This accessibility makes LA much more of an outdoors focused place than my Manhattan home base. With outdoor adventures comes the need for appropriate gear. Enter LA based Aether, a new line of stylish yet technical men’s apparel from two film producer friends, Palmer West and Jonas Smith. The new collection — which will be in stores for the first time this spring— aims to fill the void left by the outdoor companies that put out very little cool looking performance apparel.

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