Los Angelessssssss

I got into LA at 9am and my friend Jesse wasn't getting in until the next day so I had to be creative in spending my time. My friends Scott and Rick, from Stranger's Family Band from Florida, had recently moved to LA and they were able to pick me up at the bus station at 11, so I didn't have to wait that long.


They took me in their monster band van to get some much needed food at a small burger and burrito stand in Echo Park. Echo Park was really cool, kind of gritty looking with lots of old looking businesses while still being kind of "hip."
After we ate and walked around a bit Scott had to go to work at the doggie daycare he works at so he dropped me off at Stories, a "cool" coffee shop and bookstore. I needed to get some writing done so I bought a coffee and tried to write... problem was that place had the worst wifi ever and would kick you off every five minutes, so even though I was loathe to do so, I packed up my stuff and ventured down to a Starbucks I had seen down the street... that's how they get you.
The Starbucks was in this crazy place that was a laundramat with a Starbucks, a Subway, a check cashing place and an arcade inside. I even witnessed a drug deal take place at the table next to me. Randomly, Rick was there, so we sat and Interneted together for a few hours until Scott was off work.

Rick and I met up with Scott when he got off work and we went over to their friends' house. There I met Kyle and Tammy and their adorable dog and we chilled for a bit before heading out to dinner.


For dinner we went to Wurstkuche, a crazy awesome sausage place... they had a million different kind of sausages, but I just went with the normal bratwurst... I'm a huge sausage appreciator, but I really just enjoy a really well made basic sausage, no bells and whistles.

We then went to ChaCha Lounge, a "hip" tiki-style bar in Silver Lake. Drinks were pretty cheap and the music was pretty good. They didn't have a DJ booth so the DJ was just set up with his turntables and boxes of 45s in a normal booth, which was weird/cool.

After that it was time to go back to the place I'd be staying for the night. I was staying with Monty (from LAMPS and Wounded Lion, who I had only met briefly once in NY. He had a really great place and poured me a glass of whiskey and introduced me to Sally, the cutest dog ever. She basically just jumped into my lap and wouldn't leave. Monty and I had a nice night, talked about bands and MRR and stuff... and then I went to bed on his couch.

City of Angel (the Series)

As I think I've mentioned before, my only constant friends on this crazy journey have been a vampire with a soul and his ragtag band of demon-hunting employees. Yeah, I downloaded a bunch of Angel and have been watching it when bored on the bus. Right now I'm almost done with season 5! The thing is, it takes place in Los Angeles, and I was expecting to see lots of crazy deems and vamps roaming the street when I pulled into LA.
Actually, my only real knowledge of "real" LA was The Hills and other shows like that, shows that portray LA as this crazy and vapid glamorous place, and as a native New Yorker, I kind of always assumed that was true... LA was an awful place only full of celebs and models and trophy wives.

Well, I'm happy to say that I was totally wrong and had a great time in LA. I'm kind of embarrassed, I mean I'm sure there are people that think everyone in New York is a Gossip Girl character or something, so I should have realized LA would be as varied as that.
But yeah, I found out that LA has cool neighborhoods, awesome weather and crazy nature. It ruled. For real.
Right now I'm in a rush to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather in Tucson, but a full LA report will be up as soon as I get some time to use a computer.
Kinda bummed I didn't get to stake any vamps though :(

San Christmas-Cisco

I was planning on leaving for on a bus at 9pm that night, but I called Teva to have lunch with me before I started packing up. He suggested we meet at an Indian place called Naan N Curryh that wasn't far from where we were staying. It was a buffet, which I always like because it's fun to try lots of different things. Anne Marie and her buddy Shannon met us there.
After we ate Shannon and Anne Marie said that we should really go look at this giant gingerbread house at the Fairmont Hotel. We walked up there (and I mean up, it was a crazy hill) and the gingerbread house was cool! There's also just something I love about old, fancy hotels, they just have this kind of exciting, classy luxury that you don't see so much in new stuff. This is especially true around the holidays.


We walked around the beautiful hotel and tried to see the famous Tonga Room, but it was closed. Near the Tonga Room there were tons of framed relics from the old days of the Fairmont, including old menus from pre-WWII America.


Next we walked down to Union Square, and even though on this trip I'm not doing so much real touristy stuff, I gotta say that it looked beautiful and awesome all dressed up for the holidays. I may be Jewish, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate some Christmas cheer
We went to the Westin St. Francis and they had a crazy sugar castle. It was another beautiful hotel, but the main reason that we went there was to ride the crazy elevator. They have one of those tower elevators that's all glass and goes up really high really fast and you can see everything. It was awesome.

Back on the street, we came across the Macy's windows that were full of adorable kittens and puppies that were up for adoption. They were all super asleep so I joked that they were dead, TOTALLY JOKING THOUGH, and this guy next to me says (TOTALLY NOT JOKING btw) "nah, they get the dead ones out of there real quick so that the kids don't get scared"!!!!!!!



After that Jamie met up with us and we walked through Union Square to look at the tree and marvel at X-Mas. As a native east-coaster, California Christmas, with the palm trees and whatnot always confuses and delights me.


We then took a detour over to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel to stop in at the famous Harry Denton's Starlight Room and see what it was all about. Now I don't know who Harry Denton is, but there were signs in the hotel that were talking about how legen... wait for it... dary his parties were.

We got there right when it opened but we got some schmancy cocktails and felt like we were high class. Harry Denton wasn't there though so I guess it wasn't really a party :(




I had to run out to make it back to Shayde's, grab my bag and catch my 9pm bus to LA... but had a great time in Sannnnnn! Thanks y'all.

Cisco Disco

The next morning I slept in and then headed a few blocks away to eat a gyro and then chill at Little Bird Coffeehouse to write things and stuff. It was okay, had apparently just opened so it was a little dicey, but not bad.

I went back to Shayde's house, with the intention of chilling out and catching up on my Angel for a couple of hours before the show I was going to, but my plans got foiled when Shayde called to tell me that Brace and my Internet enemy Vinnie would be DJing at Beauty Bar for happy hour. I hopped on the bus and headed over there. This was the 5th Beauty Bar I'd been to so far (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Chicago, Austin before that...) and it was pretty much the same. Lots of people I had met so far were there and Vinnie was actually really nice to me. I also ran into Dan and got to meet Matt (from The Mantles who was super duper nice.






After some jams and a few beers, I hopped on a bus to head to Thee Parkside to see a "rock show." I got there in the middle of a set by Elvis Christ, a new project with they guys from Nobunny. I only caught a couple of their songs but they sounded good, pretty country.


Thee Parkside seemed like a cool place. There was a back area where mad peeps were hanging out, drinking and smoking cigggggz. Had fun hanging with all the local punnnnnx.




Next up was The Outdoorsmen who were good and loud and way punnnnnk.

Then was King Louie's Missing Monuments. I had never seen King Louie before so that was exciting. Missing Monuments were good, super tight, etc.


Max, an ex-New Yorker, was at the show. I hung out with some cool kids, including David, a guy I apparently met the last time I was in San Fran that I didn't remember at all. Dan was wearing a button that said "DON'T PANIC" and he and I bonded over a little Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, cuz 42 y'all.



Then Shannon and the Clams played, who are always awesome and did not disappoint.

I went back with David to his place in Berkeley, figured I should see other parts of the Bay Area while I was there. We listened to Love and The Troggs and had a great time.

In the morning I made coffee and he made a great breakfast of ham and eggs. I met his roommate Bill who cracked me up with a story about a crazy girl he met in LA from J-Date. She took him to see some dance music, even though he "only likes country and country western."
Before driving me back to San Fran so that he could go surfing, David took me to Indian Rock for a minute, we climbed up it and admired the Bay. I gotta say, Berkeley is really beautiful.