Like a library, it’s organized by film director and to some extent by genre. The grunginess is part of the appeal. I brought my mother, a movie buff, in a few years ago when I was breaking free of Netflix and weaning myself from HBO and premium cable. She was in awe of the clerks’ knowledge of film. The young guy who waited on us had at his fingertips the name of some obscure character actor from the 1940s, and rattled off, Rainman-style, a few other movies that the actor had been in. I thought I’d have to pry my mother out of the place; she was in danger of the guy half her age out for a date.

These days it seems that even the behemoth Blockbusters are not doing so well. The Blockbuster on 14th and Wilshire put up a sign that urges passers-by to try them out because it’s in the neighborhood. Obviously Tivo, DVR, Netflix, and Internet sites like Hulu are skimming off the customer base. I’m all for patronizing Blockbuster too, out of both a desire to support local businesses and plain old nostalgia. But I was disappointed a few weeks ago to find that Blockbuster didn’t carry “Caddyshack”. In fact, my query was greeted with a tilted head, why-would-we-have-that kind of response. Blockbuster is so all about having 83 copies of “Saw” or whatever is new that I often can’t find movies that are in the canon – even if that canon is the canon of bad taste or stuff we like but won’t admit to. Vidiots, on the other hand, has the dated and the campy movies alongside the timeless and subtle ones. As long as the average film buff still references it in some remote corner of his or her mind, it will most likely be found at Vidiots. You might have to get the truly ancient stuff on VHS, but it’s there.

Vidiots

http://www.vidiotsvideo.com/

302 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 392-8508

From Alex I learned that their chickens are actually roasted on a rotisserie for the full cooking time (approximately 2 hours), until the internal temperature is 165 F. This is in contrast to Costco chickens, which we all know taste good in that generic brined and golden sort of way. Costco apparently uses an industrial grade convection oven, which in Alex’s opinion is an inferior and dishonest way to cook something that one is selling as rotisserie chicken. We didn’t even talk about the travesty that is the Whole Foods rotisserie chicken. I was afraid to bring up the shriveled, dessicated bird that sells for about the same price as the juicy (and yes, greasy) Reddi Chick chicken – I didn’t want Alex or his coworkers to think less of me for being the kind of tool that ponies up for bad yuppie food. With all of the expertise of the best butcher at Gelson’s, he walked me around the way to quarter a chicken, including the best scissors to use, and which part to check for the tenderness and clear flowing juices that indicate when a chicken is cooked.

“You’ve never seen any blood inside our chickens, have you?” Alex asked. I had to agree that I hadn’t. The reason, he said, was that they never used a microwave or convection oven to finish the cooking.

After the chicken tutorial, I decided to try the baked potatoes. After all, it was only two hours until lunch, and the slow roasted chicken smell was making me hungry. The baked potato menu includes 30 varieties. For all of the retro charm that the Country Mart aspires to, Reddi Chick gives the place its authentic credentials.

Reddi Chick is at the Brentwood Country Mart, 225 26th Street, Santa Monica, 90402

telephone: 310-393-5238

I’ve been underemployed in the sense of regular, gainful employment (coinciding with the economic downturn last year). Freelance writers are not in high demand in these uncertain times for print journalism and slashed industrial budgets. When times are tough or I need to feel occupied, I turn on my do-it-yourself mojo. Other people have their own ways of working out their nervous energy, but I do best when my hands are busy. It’s largely for this reason that I’ve turned to another Pico Boulevard business – the Sewing Arts Center. In the last few months, I’ve taken two basic sewing classes there and made a few rudimentary projects – the famous batik drawstring pants that make me feel like Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski, my much more sophisticated skirt, and a very quick skirt that I knocked off in an hour. I’ve learned how to construct French seams, invisible zippers, and how to use an impressive array of tools. The demands on the brain and hands of learning a new craft keep me focused on this small project in front of me that’s within my control, and whatever else is going on in my life takes a backseat to making a good seam, measuring correctly, not getting stuck by a pin. I highly recommend it to anyone else who’s prone to pacing, cuticle biting, and obsessive Googling and Facebooking. Not that I know anyone like this.

I won’t be getting a job or any financial benefit out of my recession hobby, but I am the proud owner of a couple of skirts that would have cost a few hours of freelance work. And, like I’ve observed in children, making something good or at least trying, can be the difference in a demoralizing day and one that might just be okay.

Check out Russell and the good people at the Sewing Arts Center (3330 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90405. Ph: 310-450-4300). They are a small local business worth supporting.

Montana Avenue was rife with upscale baby stores. From 9th Street all the way to 17th Street, the number of pretty little receiving blankets, darling clothes, and useful but silly gadgets for child rearing (think Bugaboo strollers and the bath toy caddy shaped like a frog), was legion. Anchoring it at 14th Street was BabyStyle. Now, many of these places have shuttered or are having massive sales to liquidate. BabyStyle is a mess of drastically reduced children’s and maternity clothes and baby toys. The employees keep trying to do their job well, but they – like the bargain-seeking customers – seem pretty frayed.

On Wilshire Avenue, the Right Start looks deserted – like the employees don’t expect to come back to work tomorrow. The company reported filed for bankruptcy and will be closing its stores. The Pump Station seems to be holding onto success, perhaps because it is the only store of its kind in the area – offering new parents education and support as well as gorgeous and pricey ways to pamper their babies.

I could go on and on with the children’s stores all over town that have closed with little notice, but you get the picture. I’ve been told about second hand children’s stores in the area, but I have yet to find them (leads would be appreciated!).

Just before the holidays I participated in a multifamily yard sale. I didn’t have time to pull together all of the clothes my children have outgrown, so my items were fairly limited to household tchotchkes, cookbooks, some grownup clothes that never really suited my husband and me, and a few rather lame toys. Family after family, seeing my kids with me, kept asking if I had clothes to sell. Hearing that I didn’t then but might in the future, my would-be buyers were disappointed that they couldn’t get a deal today on items they actually needed.

I used to marvel over who exactly kept the frou-frou baby shops in business. Some of the things my parent cohort and I bought were more practical than others. A great, versatile stroller is possibly worth a huge price tag if you walk a lot. The little distressed jean jackets with sewn-on lace and sequins, the tiny Led Zeppelin replica concert T-shirts… not so much. What I find interesting is that this kind of consumer spending had such weak legs. I guess we all knew how ridiculous it was to drop $40 or more for a piece of clothing that might be worn only a few times. So does everyone already have enough clothing in the closet for their fast-growing brood, or are people going to the suburbs and online to purchase their families’ simpler and cheaper wardrobes?

Now would be a great time for a few more second-hand stores, it seems – or at least a Target somewhere in the city.

But what alarmed me more than the sparse restaurant crowds was the the number of empty storefronts. In the 10 blocks between 17th Street and just beyond 7th Street, there were 19 stores for lease. This area of Santa Monica is renowned for its high-priced merchandise and leases, so it’s inevitable that some stores will buckle from the recession. But to see such a large number – and that didn’t include the stores with sales that sounded suspiciously like going out of business deals – does not bode well.

The last time I went in there was a couple of years ago, and at that point it looked like a store that was about to go under. Not that it was terrible. It just looked dated and out of place with the peppy hipness of contemporary Santa Monica. On that visit, I whisked through the depressing racks of polyester and rayon clothes on the first floor and went straight to the second floor, to the very picked-over children’s department. I bought a few Lands End infant garments and was on my way. With all of the changes in Santa Monica retail, most easily summed up as replacing any old and practical store with new, niche, and pricey ones, I was sure that any day I would drive by the old Sears and see it with papered up windows and a notice that a new day spa-cum-Tesla car dealership was in the works to replace it.

Today’s visit was a pleasant surprise. The store has been given a facelift. Parking could hardly be easier or more plentiful. Sears has been selling Lands End clothes for a number of years, but now it looks like all of their Lands End clothes are on the first floor. Attractive sofas adorn the women’s department near the dressing rooms, and the sales staff was helpful and efficient.

I hope that the store will remain a part of the city. It’s a rarity to have any good-sized, reasonable store that sells everyday items in Santa Monica. There are no end of ma and pa copy shops and a seemingly endless line of mattress stores on Wilshire, and Montana Avenue and Main Street serve the hip, healthy and yogic masses. But for those of us who want to simplify our lives and stay in the neighborhood for our household shopping, few stores exist.

Several years ago there was a plan being considered by the city to build a Target on 4th Street near the Promenade. The store would have been on bus lines, easily accessible by the elderly and lower-income families in the area. Ironically, one of the arguments against the Target was that we already had a Sears. It sounded a lot like saying that “we” didn’t want any more stores to attract and serve the lumpen proletariat. Yes, there would have been traffic as a result of the store, but there is currently an awful amount of traffic in the area. It’s doubtful that Target, with traffic flow and parking as a major component of the proposed site, would have made things any worse than they ended up with all of the little boutiques and high-end stores in the area. And ordinary families could have shopped within their own city for necessities like diapers, school supplies, inexpensive clothing, small electronics. Instead we now have to commit to driving down horrendous Lincoln Boulevard to Costco in Marina del Rey, on one of the freeways to more practical cities (Manhattan Beach, Culver City, Sherman Oaks, etc), or shop online.

Here’s to hoping that Sears withstands the recession!