Hanging with our friend, Nayoung, owner of Proof Bakery in Atwater Village. This bakery is blowing up. In the quick chat we had with Nayoung, every single customer that came through knew her by name and she in turn knew each one… there is no doubt as to why her bakery is so successful. If you haven’t been there yet, it’s a must go… not only because it’s a very friendly neighborhood spot, but, they have the best almond croissants among many, many other delicious treats. They also serve Handsome Coffee, which you know we are huge fans of.

Then, from Atwater to Highland Park, a quick meeting with our friends Kagan and Justin of the Knowhow Shop LA. These architects have opened up a design studio and custom fabrication shop in a cool little residential strip of Highland Park. We are brainstorming store signage for the new Poketo retail store! Can’t wait! In the meantime, check out all of their projects at knowhowshopla.tumblr.com.

My favorite show of the year so far. Transmission LA ends May 6th, today! If you’ve slept on this, catch it if you can, it’s worth it. At the least, here is a glimpse… I posted some of my favorite installations below by Peter Coffin, Ben Jones, Jim Drain, Ara Peterson, Tom Sachs, and Takeshi Murata.

Peter Coffin neon installation (above)… I want this room.

Ben Jones fully immersive video installation. Blown… Away. Here is a tour of the Cartoon Network Studios I got with Ben Jones, John Pham, and the Problem Solverz crew last year.

Jim Drain and Ara Peterson. Probably the most photographed in the entire show.

Tom Sachs soundsystem.

Takeshi Murata

The show was sponsored by Mercedes Benz… the installation was the advertisement of the show… but, seriously, amazing. You put on the headphones, music plays and lights pulsate to the beat on the MBZ concept car. Loved it.

If you haven’t heard yet, we’re opening up Poketo’s first brick and mortar retail shop here in the Arts District of Downtown LA! This has been a dream forever, we are super excited, and will be posting more as things develop. But, we gave Kyle and Bobby of LAimyours.com and thefoxisblack.com the scoop on the construction and plans. Kyle of LAIY did an interview with us, check it out here… and stay tuned for the BIG party… hopefully by early Summer!

Poketo’s new retail and gallery will be at 820 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013… Right next to Apolis Activism, Wurstkuche, Pie Hole and all the fun stuff in the Arts District.

There have been some funny instances along the way too… like, Joe Poketo here trying to chase a bird out of the space with a handmade bird catcher. I felt like I was in an episode of Survivor or something…

Love this shot of Charlie Poketo here going through details of the buildout with our GC Matt Cole…

And here is the design/build/GC… man who can do it all, Matt Cole of Delta… going through the plans and checking things off his list.

LA is heading into a boom time for public transport… or so I hope. The opening of the Metro Blue Line this weekend was a good step. It got us East (Downtown LA) to West (Culver City) without a car and with ease. Actually, we biked From Echo Park to Downtown LA, hopped on the Metro and got off at Culver City’s Syd Kronenthal Park. It’s at the park entrance that the dedicated Ballona Creek Bike Trail begins. From there, it’s a totally open, car free ride straight to the ocean. It was pretty amazing getting to the beach without the car.

Blue line will eventually extend all the way to Santa Monica, plans are to have that completed by around 2015.

Extremely helpful and friendly Metro staff made sure we got where we were going.

We had heard some good things about Pinche’s Tacos in Culver City, so, we stopped in for their goodness. It was pretty darn good.

… and finally… the beach. Aaaahhhhh.