LA LA LA

Jesse and I woke up early on Thursday and it was beautiful out... just sunny and awesome and warm... so we grabbed some egg sandwiches at a divey Mexican place and then headed out into nature... We went to Griffith Park, a park up in the hills, and it was really beautiful... striking views of LA, hiking near the Hollywood sign, etc. We hiked up the mountain and looked at nature and got dehydrated. After we got tired of hiking we headed back down the hill and walked over to the Griffith Observatory. It was kind of crazy at first because there were about 100 grade school kids hanging out on the lawn, but once we got inside it was awesome! They have a little museum about space and the universe and the world we live in and other stuff. They even have a Foucault Pendulum, and who doesn't love a good Foucault Pendulum??? Jesse and I learned all kinds of thing about the sun and the moon and the seasons and the elements.
The coolest thing we saw at the Observatory was a Camera Obscura. I had heard of them before but had never seen one... a dark room that projects an image through a pinhole and a mirror. Man, Jesse and I could probably have kept staring at that for hours. A friendly museum employee saw our interest and told us about it at length, Jesse was very curious about making his own.


We then left and saw a really cool sundial that was super accurate at "telling the time."

Then it was time to do the main event of my Los Angeles trip... go see a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. It might be kind of weird, but I'm totally obsessed with Craig... I watch his show whenever possible and I'm obsessed with all his bits. I even waited in line for hours to get him to sign American On Purpose when it came out. He is just the best.

The taping was great! He did my favorite bit, which is of course SECRETARIAT!

I had more fun at the taping than Jesse, but that's to be expected I suppose.
After the taping we got dinner and then went over to Zack and Jamie's house to have a beer before going out. Their house is exactly what I imagined "cool" apartments in LA to look like.

There I got to meet their adorable and sweet kitty who has FIV. :(

Jamie and Jesse and I went out. They were going to take me to The Short Stop, a hipstery bar in Echo Park... but we accidentally ended up at a place next door called Little Joy where there was a crazy hardcore punk show going on. It was definitely kids that looked like they learned how to be punk from a movie, but it was fun. Jesse and Jamie were not into it though...



After the moshing started to get intense we slipped out and went to The Short Stop and danced the night away...
Next stop, Tucson.

Coffe Shop Exxxpert

The next morning I woke up at Monty's house and took a shower and stuff and chilled with his puppy. He had some pretty cool art and stuff, and I was pretty amused by his collection of Black Lips plates:

He took me out to a breakfast place, and on the way there I was kind of blown away by how pretty LA is. I always imagined it kind of urban wastelandy but you can see fucking mountains and shit everywhere, pretty much rules.
Breakfast was good, I got an awesome egg white omelet which came with a side of fruit.


Monty then had stuff to do and my buddy Jesse, who I would be staying with for the next two nights, wasn't getting back into town until about 3:30, so he dumped me at The Down Beat Cafe, an Echo Park coffee shop. I was about to order my coffee and settle in to do some writing when I saw a posted sign that said "We do not offer wireless." What the fuck coffee shop, way to be a douche. Really glad that you're a fucking coffee shop and still totally anti-Internet. GOOD BUSINESS MODEL.
So now I was stranded in LA at a shitty coffee shop. I was near Stories, but I had been there the day before, and I definitely didn't want to chill in that Starbucks again, so I used the magic that is a smart phone to look for the location of another coffee place.
I went to Chango Coffee, a few blocks away in Echo Park, that was a pretty nice place, but their Internet wasn't working... So I ventured on about a 15 minute walk up a pretty steep hill to Fix Coffee, a really cute coffee shop nestled into teh side of a hill with a huge porch and stuff. My friend Josh Heller came to visit me and we chatted for a bit.

Jesse ended up being really delayed in getting back from the airport... he was supposed to be back around 4, ended up taking until 7. But he eventually got me and we drove off to go eat some fooood.
He took me to Alegria on Sunset, a really cool Mexican place near his house.

It was nice to see Jesse... he's a friend from New York that moved to LA a few months ago to get serious about his music career. He worked on MIA's "Paper Planes" and has the gold record to prove it!

We were going to go out after but we were both tired and we started watching Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and that was pretty much it... we were in for the night.

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 :(