Ilene and I made a pilgrimage to the new Fresh & Easy market at the corner of Vanowen Street and Sepulveda Boulevard, within eyeshot of Valley Presbyterian Hospital.

If you want the ingredients to make your own meal, they've got it. If you want the meal pre-prepared in heat-and-eat fashion, they've got that, too. Toilet paper, ice cream, canned and dry beans, huge (and I mean freakin' huge) chocolate bars — yep, they've got it.

Look for five dozen photos in this super-special photo gallery.

Here are a few images to bring you the flavor:

This is the entrance. We're not in Kansas, or Vons, anymore.

This one's a little out of left field: Goat-milk yogurt.

I just recently tried natural, nonsugar sweetener Stevia, and I quite like it. Fresh & Easy is full of Stevia.

This looks pretty tasty.

If you like a lot of chocolate.

If goat (or cow) milk's not your thing, Fresh & Easy has its own branded soy yogurt.

It's all self-checkout at Fresh & Easy.

A wider view of the self-checkout area.

Mmmmm ... bread ....

I sure hadn't, until Kevin Roderick wrote about it today in L.A. Observed.

It looks like this section of Encino is trying to appropriate as many tony-L.A. buzzwords as possible, with the sign saying:

Encino Commons: The Valley's Miracle Mile.

Kevin correctly points out that the real Miracle Mile ain't so miraculous that Valley streets need to be stealing its name, and I'll further that by saying that the Calabasas Commons is an outdoor mall. Nothing more.

There's a lot to like about Encino, but appropriating tired L.A. monikers doesn't do anything to enhance the area's image.

I was trolling through Laist and found this entry about Black Fag, a gay Black Flag tribute band. Hi----larious.

Check out Black Fag's MySpace page and listen to all your Black Flag favorites in a different way. Black Fag will be back in L.A. on Aug. 1.

I decided to stop in at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the huge office park off of Canoga Avenue in good ol' Woodland Hills.

Sure it's a minor inconvenience to get my parking validated ... but at least there is parking.

And they have not one, not one and a decaf, but FOUR drip coffees brewing and available: light and dark roasts, a flavored coffee and a decaf.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Starbucks ruler Howard Schultz.

I'm no fan of flavored coffees, but maybe some of you are.

It's about freedom.

I am a fan of dark roasts, and the Colombian I got today was and is excellent.

Adding to the overall goodness, Coffee Bean always offers nondairy creamer at its condiment bar — a tip of the hat to a) vegans and b) the lactose intolerant.

At Starbucks, you can request soy milk from the barista, but nondairy creamer at the condiment bar? Nope.

And remember, there's a huge Coffee Bean opening up in the Ralphs market directly across the street from my local Starbucks.

Now I'm not saying I won't darken the doorway of many a Starbucks — there's just too damn many of them.

But Coffee Bean, you know what I need. I'm not complicated. You seem to "get me."

The Google Map set up by the Seattle Times to track Starbucks closings across the country has another L.A.-area Starbucks that is reportedly slated to close:

820 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA
According to a Seattle Times reader.

Again, this is unconfirmed, but I can see that happening, because there's literally two Starbucks on every block on Montana Avenue. There's a busy one on Montana and 7th Street, so 820 Montana is a mere block away.

Deep in the comments at Starbucks Gossip, I learned:

Today I heard in Burbank CA, Victory and Empire was closing, but the manager doesn't even know yet. I am in a neighboring district and found out before her. that sux.

That would be this outlet:

Victory & Empire, Burbank
1711 North Victory Place
Burbank, CA 91502
818-843-3979

A few more of these and I might start a map of my own. Until then, there's the Google Map started by the Seattle Times.

View Larger Map

Hey, my buddy Jason Kandel isn't the only guy who knows how to use these interactive maps. The Seattle Times has one that is designed to show as many of the 600-odd Starbucks locations slated to close in the mega-chain's current downsizing.

So far the map, which relies on reports from baristas and others in the know, only has about 10 locations. I'll be keeping an eye out for when it starts to fill out, and I'll let you know what I find.

Go here for the full map, along with a note on each alleged Starbucks closure. ... Or just look at the map above. Thanks Google and Seattle Times!

Update: A new source of Starbucks closure information is the Starbucks Closing blog.

As always, the best place to take Starbucks' pulse is Starbucks Gossip.

California will not escape when it comes to Starbucks closures, according to this missive from Convenience Store News (that's a publication — can you believe it?):

Starbucks officials said the closures are happening in "all major U.S. markets" between late July and March. Florida and California are among the largest states affected, spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil told Bloomberg News.

There were 2,496 stores in California and 625 in Florida in March. Those two states have been especially hard hit by the real-estate downturn and credit crisis.

I roll into Starbucks a bit after 9. There's barely any line at all.

I ask for the venti drip, dark roast.

They actually have it.

The guy fills the cup, gives it to me, runs my Starbucks card through the register, I put in the half-and-half and I'm out.

And yes, it was good for me, too.

I'll let you, the reader, ponder.