Thirty Day LA

I am writing this post now with the foresight of realizing how easy it is to not maximize the potential of 30dayla. A couple of days this week ended in disappointment due to poor planning and unforeseen circumstances.

Last Tuesday I had made plans to visit the poetry lounge to check it out. A few of you may remember my initial post were I mentioned performing spoken word as something I wanted to try during the course of my 30days. I figured it would be a chance to push myself to try something where the chance of failure would be extremely high. A friend of mine told me Tuesdays is a good day to check out the local performers and get a sense to see what I was in for.

To make a long story relative short I came home that, day took a long nap, and slept through my chance to go to the poetry lounge. It was past 11 by the time I woke up so I had to scramble to figure out something to do. The last minutes plan was to continue my quest to visit all the restaurants on the best of Citysearch list. I wanted to check out the number one choice for late-night dining Magnolia in Hollywood. Tiny said he could tag along but we would need to stop by the grove first to get his work schedule. I figured it would be a good time for me to check out the Grove at night, since the word had been that it looks really nice.

It was interesting to see the Grove so empty, however the fountains were off and the scenery wasn’t as cool as it could have been.

After the Grove me and Tiny made our way to Magnolia on Sunset. Sadly it was closed (SideNote: I hate citysearch their hours are always off and they often list places that no longer exist).

So at that point I decided it was time to start a new project within 30dayla. The hunt for the best Burrition in LA.

The quest started with us heading way east towards Tacos el Gavilan, but guess what it was closed.

After that we headed back to a hangout for USC students, Chano’s. Chano’s make some pretty damn good burritos. It's late hours are perfect for 1AM burrito cravings. If you can get passed the annoying and drunk USC students there you will enjoy one of the best burritos in town (definitely better than anything on the Westside. However the drunk SC students did gave Tiny a chance to interject his wisdom into their conversations as follows:

Drunk SC guy: “Man she is not coming out tonight because she is having sex with some guy”
Drunk SC girl: “She better be having sex with someone worthwhile”
Tiny (very loudly to drunken SC students who we don’t know): “I really doubt it”
Me (under my breath like a pussy so no one can hear): “yeah that never happens"

Good stuff. However the night was fun for exploration but disappointing as I went to bed feeling that I had done nothing to push myself closer to my goals for 30dayla. It seemed at that point that the next day would be no different.

Wednesday:

This was supposed to be the day that I pushed myself out of my element and jump into an Improv class with actual actors. Hoping to confront my fears and trust my impulses. Despite what I had planned this was actually the day that my improv class was cancelled (my improv teacher was in San Diego on a shoot for Veronica Mars). So I needed to make things happen quickly.

That morning I decided to create a new theme for 30dayla. FUCK THE WESTSIDE. I’ve spent too much time on the Westside and I needed to force myself for the rest of the month to push myself into new territory and explore what LA really has to offer.

Silverlake seemed like a good destination for the night. For all of you who don’t know, Silver Lake is the kind of place where you can have an upscale apartment next a project. I see Los Angeles as a diverse city that is surprisingly over segregated, where each income bracket has a different zip code or community named after them. In Silver Lake, rather than extreme segregation you can see diversity on the same street.

I found a diner called Brite Spot that was supposed to have live DJs perform there. Once again I have to say I hate Citysearch, since DJs were nowhere to be found. However I did get a chance to enjoy some pretty good food and check out a new scene. The food was nothing amazing but the scene was interesting. I witnessed Jocks sitting next to pseudo-hipsters across from young urban professionals. On the other side of the restaurant you could see an older group of people having a philosophical discussion. It always makes me feel better to see different social groups coming together. However the minimal number of minorities prevented me from actually seeing the true mixing of diverse groups.

The night finally ended with me deciding to take my desire to take more chances literally and go to the Hollywood Park casino in Inglewood. I’ve never gambled before; I haven’t even bought a lottery ticket. Going to Hollywood Park would push me to take a new kind of risk. Sadly the excursion was pretty much a disappointment, I might as well have just dropped the money in a donation box.. All it made me feel was irresponsible. It was actually quite depressing for me to see how many old people had been caught up in the world of gambling. A large number of people came in with headphones, hats, and sunglasses hoping to avoid being read by their fellow gamblers. It wasn’t really a world that I cared too much to become a part of

While I did get to explore on this day I felt like I made little personal progress. Another throwaway day. I need to sit back and take the time to plan if I really want to push to get what I want out of 30dayla I need to plan. Im hoping whoever reads this post pushes me to put more into to planning for 30dayla to make sure I achieve my goals. Regardless I’m going to try my best to jump forward and make up for the days I didn’t take full advantage of.

Posted by The Plastic Highway at 4:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s Captain Melo again. I must confess, I have a blogging addiction. In the month of September, when I wasn’t doing Thirty Day LA anymore, I found myself a new outlet for external validation: Yelp. For those of you who don’t know what the hell Yelp is, it’s a website that's like a mashup of Friendster and Citysearch. You write reviews and create lists about the places you’ve been to so you can share your experiences and expertise on the best spots in town with other Yelpers. Based on those reviews people can rate your reviews, add you as a friend, send compliments, which all trick you into believing you’re a valued part of the online community. Considering that I mostly just went to new places during my thirty days, transitioning to Yelp was quite natural. It’s so easy to get sucked into this damn online world. I need to start going out more again.

Anyway, enough about Yelp, and back to The Plastic Highway. He’s been busy, so he wanted me to fill in some details. First, an exposition on the nature of a topic dear to our hearts: pimping.

Now all of us single guys (and non-single guys too) have our own ways of operating when it comes to running game. Some guys exude charisma and confidence and can instantly make any girl feel comfortable and talkative. Some guys are cocky assholes who always find girls to feed their ego. Others use alcohol as their courage juice. Despite their differences, all these guys share a common experience early in their pimping careers. It’s when the young wannabe pimp is still shy and unsure of himself, but on one magical night, he manages to strike up a conversation with a pretty, friendly, nice, talkative, engaging, and interesting girl. She shows interest and smiles a lot. He’s surprised that this girl is actually talking, laughing, and even flirting with him. There’s this incredible rush of not caring that he’s dripping sweat, his breath smells like dead rats, and his income doesn’t even come close to the six figures that her ex-boyfriend was pulling down. A couple hours flow into mere minutes. But then it’s time to go, so he says it was nice to meet her, and leaves. And then he realizes something. He forgot ask for her number. He berates himself, "You goddamn shit-fuck dumb-shit fucking motherfucker," walks around in a few confused circles, and finally lets out a deep groan, knowing the window of opportunity has closed. And this is Stealth Mode, when your game is so sneaky that you fooled even your own damn self.

I’d say my modus operandi is drunken-courage slash defeatist-overcompensating-dork. The Plastic Highway, on the other hand, hasn’t picked a game style yet because he’s never felt the inclination to become a desperate loser. So a couple Thursdays ago, we hit up three bars we've never been to before in Hollywood so he could conquer his self-conscious fear of getting rejected by women.

Our first destination of the night was The Well, a popular local bar near the Arclight in Hollywood. We went inside, found the place full of sausage, and took a seat at the bar and tried to figure out what to do. There were all of two girls in the place. The Plastic Highway tried to warm up his game by asking the cute bartender if the place was always full of douchebag guys, to which she laughed. Then he spotted a group of three girls walk in, and after some prodding, went over to talk to them. After they got their drinks, both of us went over to the couches where they were sitting and we talked to them. The Plastic Highway had his eye out for the very cute Asian girl in a red dress while I tried to run an obvious wingman and proceeded to get nothing out of her friend. So with nothing left to say and the Plastic Highway's game running smoothly, I excused myself to get another drink. After a while, he found me and told me that we were going to go check out another bar. We went outside and that’s when I learned that he had been scared off by a group of three guy friends that had showed up and forgot to ask for her number. Instead of a powerful impact from the cannon, all he did was take a little pistol gun with a silencer and shoot himself in the nuts. Damn.

After that, we went to Beauty Bar. The theme of the place is a beauty salon, and the DJ was playing a song that The Plastic Highway really liked. He found a girl to chat with for a while. It was her birthday and she wanted to get drunk and she seemed happy to talk to him. But he wasn’t interested, partly because she said she hated the music. Then we went down the street and to complete our Hollywood Bar Trifecta and found ourselves at Citizen Smith.

At first, we had no idea what kind of place it was, but the friendly hostess assured us that the kitchen was open until 1AM. She seated us in the back outdoor patio, and we got a good view of some of the hoochies standing around vying for the non-existent attention that was being dished out. The place itself had a classical gothic architecture theme going on. The bar area in the back was pretty packed, but the rest of the place was rather empty for a Thursday night. The coolest part of Citizen Smith was the giant sliding door that would open and close with a gentle nudge. Anyway, our server was very attentive and friendly, and he told us the place had just opened sometime around March. The food was delicious. I ordered a plate of three mini-burgers with caramelized onions and The Plastic Highway got a giant chicken burger/sandwich thing. So over our food, The Plastic Highway and I analyzed his performance for the night. Not bad, considering he talked to two strange girls in one night, and up until that point it had only been one in his entire life. But he was still hung up about being in Stealth Mode, so he decided he was going to go back to The Well and ask for that girl’s number.

We went back, and the girl was still there. He waited around, not sure of what to do, and then we saw her walk by shit-faced and being half-carried by her two friends. I told The Plastic Highway to go after her. He tapped her on the shoulder, but she didn't respond, and he let her go. She went outside, presumably to barf all over the ground outside or something attractive to that effect. And so the night was over.

Welcome to the humiliating, depressing, but always memorable world of dating. This got me to thinking what kind of game style The Plastic Highway could adopt to increase his chances of success. Over the years I’ve witnessed a few unorthodox styles that were amazingly effective:

• Sleeper Pimp – fall asleep at house parties and have girls lie all over your comatose body
• Bold Liar – make up elaborate lies about who you are and never talk to them again after you drop them off the next morning
• Cockblocker – Swoop in to save the girl from your game-less friend, but end up with zero friends
• Brash Pimp – ask the girl what color her panties are and she’ll be happy that you’re giving her attention
• Dancing Pimp Face – walk around the club asking girls to dance and then put on a pimp face while you’re gyrating knee-to-crotch

Yeah, on second thought, maybe not. Whatever his style ends up to be, I’m glad I was there to witness The Plastic Highway’s entrance into Stealth Mode. Hopefully he’ll get out of it soon.

The Well
6255 W Sunset Blvd Ste 115
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 467-9355
Google Maps Link
Cost: Free cover, $7 for drinks, $10 for strong mystery concoctions

Citizen Smith
1600 N Cahuenga Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 461-5001
Google Maps Link
Cost: $8 for mini-burgers, $9 for chicken sandwich

Posted by CaptainMelo at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)