Thirty Day LA

Normally, I’m not inclined to do anything spontaneous. I will think the hell out of something before doing it, list all the reasons why I shouldn’t do it, and then end up not doing it because the opportunity has already passed. But this time, I was feeling slightly bored and so I said to myself, stop thinking and just do it.

Just Do It was one of the slogans that dominated television airwaves when I was growing up. Say No To Drugs was another one. I was always confused by the contradictory messages. I blame the advertising industry for my indecisive nature.

Last week, my friend ShopGirl sent out an email to go to the Getty Museum for their Off the 405 Event on Friday, which featured DJ’s spinning outdoors for night of dancing and fun. After much self-debate, I said I would go. My other friend Lefty said he was also going. He happens to work with ShopGirl at a big ad agency (IRONY ALERT). Anyway, with Lefty going, I knew it would be an excellent night filled with alcohol.

I got out of work early that day because my manager unwisely left me in charge, so I just went home. ShopGirl said she was off early too, so we went to our favorite store, Trader Joe’s, and bought food and snacks for everyone and headed off to the Getty to stake out a table. We hung out, snacked, checked out the views, and waited for everyone to show up. I told ShopGirl about my plan to do something new everyday for thirty days. She endorsed the plan. When Lefty got there, we headed straight for the cash bar. I told him about my plan, but he had already begun filling his liver with toxins, so I quickly joined in. I spent the rest of the night mostly hanging out, watching my roommate LazyBoy dance in the crowd and talking to ShopGirl’s and Lefty’s friends.

My plan was in motion. I had told two people about it already, so there was no way I could back out of it. I went home after the Getty and called up my high school buddy’s girlfriend’s best friend, ObligatedGirl, who we had all hung out with in New York. She was back in LA, so along with my roommates LazyBoy and GuitarHero, we decided to check out a karaoke Dive Bar in Culver City called Backstage.

From the outside, Backstage looks like a typical seedy dive bar, except that it’s the only bar in the neighborhood, on the backside of Sony Pictures Studios. We went in, and the place was packed full of screeching, drunken yuppies. It took me about half an hour to get a drink, but at least the drinks were cheap. I sat down at the table with my friends and watched the performances. Two really drunk guys butchered Bohemian Rhapsody, an older black woman belted out At Last, and a tall skinny black guy sang Kiss and Say Goodbye. GuitarHero put in a song for LazyBoy to sing, but we didn’t wait around long enough to hear his name get called. We left when a tall, thick Asian girl threw herself all over the KJ and went up to sing and tried really hard to be alluring.

I might go back to the place another time, as long as I get roaring drunk first so I won't have any qualms humiliating myself in front of a hostile audience. I might have to go by myself though, because my friends didn’t seem to like the place too much. Oh well.

We went back to our apartment, and LazyBoy introduced ObligatedGirl to the video game Guitar Hero, which I am actually better at than my roommate GuitarHero. He is awesome at real guitar, so it’s not much of an accomplishment on my part. While they were playing, I researched more events and almost persuaded ObligatedGirl to do a team triathlon with me and GuitarHero. She said she’d think about it.

The first night of my adventure, and it was a night of music. Many more to come.