East Coast vs. West Coast rivals laid down their Glocks and picked up spoons last Saturday, as Marky Ramone, former drummer of the Ramones, flew in from Brooklyn to the Venice Whole Foods to promote his new pasta sauce. The sauce is called Marky Ramone’s Brooklyn’s Own Pasta Sauce, a fittingly complicated name from someone whose job it was to keep time for the rapid Ramones.
Los Angeles area folks do not have a reputation for subtlety. Perhaps that’s one reason why this mural which doubles as a pictogram, hiding in plain sight on the back of the Venice Whole Foods, is none too subtle. Hint: the Whole Foods is at the corner of Lincoln … and Rose … get it?
LA based (OK, El Segundo) Fresh and Easy Market has a nifty sign proclaiming their stuff is safe and never had anything from the tainted manufacturer. In recent days the list has expanded. Whole Foods Paycheck and Monrovia based Trader Joe’s have more than a couple of items on the recall list due to salmonella poisoning. The current outbreak has been noted as the cause of several deaths across the country including at least one in CA.
When I first began visiting Los Angeles via LAX, I was saddened by the unsightly welcome that greeted me along Lincoln Boulevard. I dreamed of a future that included a high-class, tree-lined Lincoln thoroughfare, complete with fancy stores and unobtrusive billboards. My dream could be one step closer today, as Whole Foods held a Grand Opening of its latest “superstore” (my term) in Venice, along Lincoln just north of Rose Avenue.