In November of 2022, I moved my newsletter to Substack, and I have to say that it was the best decision I have ever made. I have been able to give more Los Angeles to subscribers than I could before. More events, more recommendations, and more insight into my love letter to this city. Here is why you should subscribe to my newsletter now. If those reasons are enough, go…
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Goodbye, 2022! Hello, 2023!
We made it! Goodbye, 2022! Hello, 2023! Happy New Year from This Ugly Beautiful City! 2022 was such a rollercoaster ride! And not in a cheesy fun way like at Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Park. There are dozens of year-in-review recaps that you can watch…
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Los Angeles neighborhood name generator
I thought this would be a great time to pause before I move on to talk about westside neighborhood names. This is the area of the city where it starts to get confusing. Why is it so confusing? Because these neighborhoods between Venice, Culver City,…
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Demystifying Malibu
There was a time when the only thing I knew about Malibu was that was the town where Barbie had her fabulous dream house and life with Ken in his skin-colored briefs. When I was a little older, Malibu was the playground of the rich…
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Starline Tour: Malibu Celebrity Homes Tour
I love doing research for this blog. Writing This Ugly Beautiful City has given me an excuse to explore Los Angeles and do some things I didn’t do as a tourist. Activities like buying a star map or taking a hop-on, hop-off tour of the…
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Montana, the unfamiliar
This post is a placeholder for the future. By this point, I would have revisited Montana Avenue, wandered its streets, tasted its food, and reported it all back to you. With the lockdowns and reopenings, then increase in COVID cases, the type of research I…
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Where to eat in the Bergamot Station area of Santa Monica
East of downtown Santa Monica is more residential. Hiding between the homes, office parks, and apartment buildings is an unassuming foodie destination. This has a lot to do with all of the offices in this neighborhood. This is the area of a lot of tech companies,…
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Where to eat on Main Street Santa Monica
It is only logical that I head over to the Main Street/Ocean Park area of Santa Monica after my exhaustive post of downtown. This section of Main Street is a sort of limbo area between downtown Santa Monica and Venice. Its stretch of mom-and-pop shops…
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Most popular posts of 2020
This Ugly Beautiful City’s most-read posts of 2020 concentrated on nature, art, and food. In case you missed them here are the top five posts of last year. Number one: Leo Carrillo State Beach tide pools One thing you were able to do in Los…