Thirty Day LA

I hoped that by taking on Thirty Day LA, not only would I have some memorable experiences but I would also get some useful ideas for things to do that others might find useful. By request, here are my top ten free summertime activities in LA.

• Getty Museum Off the 405: free music, cash bar, great atmosphere. Get there early to pick out a table in front of the DJ stage
• Griffith Park Night hike: every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights starting at 7PM sharp in the upper merry-go-round parking lot. Bring water and hiking shoes.
• Outdoor activities: Shakespeare by the Sea performances, Burbank’s Dancing in the Streets on Thursday nights, Dance Downtown on Friday nights
• Bike to work: Map out your trail with Google Maps or Google Earth, get some buddies to bikepool, and check out the bike-commuting website Roll With It
• Midnight Ridazz: Every second Friday of the month a gang of bikers in the hundreds take over the streets in a safe but thrilling 15 mile ride
• Hammer Museum: Modern art exhibits and music performances in the courtyard at night, free during the summer only
• Nike training runs: starting at 6:30PM every night of the week in different locations throughout LA, these 3 and 5 mile group runs are great for staying in shape, meeting people, and exploring LA by foot
• Karaoke dive bars: if you BYOFlask, you can have fun belting out tunes in your best drunken voice for free all night in any of these places: Backstage, Tattle Tale Room, Gas Lite, Liquid Kitty (Mondays), The Hideout (Tuesdays)
• Music Festivals: Sunset Junction now charges $15 admission, but there are other free music festivals: performances at The Grove, Central Avenue Jazz Festival, Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance series, Grand Performances, Henry Mancini Institute concerts, Culver City Summer Sunset Music Festival
• Go to the beach: bike to Malibu, surf at Zuma Beach, hike in Santa Monica, get burnt at Paradise Cove, play volleyball/Frisbee/football in Manhattan Beach, run in Hermosa, catch the sunset at El Matador, have a bonfire at Dockweiler, do a midnight swim at Playa Del Rey.

Yes, there is some overlap with my other list Top Ten Things to Do By Yourself in LA, but there they are. I know summer is almost officially over, but the great thing about LA is that it feels like it never ends.

Posted by CaptainMelo at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This past weekend, I didn’t have any exciting events planned for myself. I’ve been drinking too much and spending too much money, so I thought I’d get back to the basics: get some sun, exercise, and relax.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

I took a bike tour of Santa Monica with StimpPimp. We met up at the cusp of Brentwood, at Federal and Wilshire, and rode four miles on San Vicente to The Steps on Channel Road in Santa Monica. The Steps are two sets of stairs, one wooden and one concrete, that connect the lower part of Channel Road to the higher part of Adelaide Drive in an expensive neighborhood of Santa Monica. Usually the Steps are packed with middle-aged people getting into shape and young people in phenomenal shape. I went once at 6:30AM on a weekday and it wasn’t as crowded as it usually was on the weekends. We ran up the wooden ones and walked down the concrete ones. StimpPimp counted 84 steps on the top half of the wooden steps. The hardest part was to keep running while trying to pass the walkers. The Steps are very narrow and sometimes there’s a bottleneck of people who are trying to pass the walkers either on the way up or the way down. We endured four rounds before we succumbed to the desire to rest our burning legs and lungs. Later we grabbed lunch at Panera Bread. We both got the Frontega Chicken Panini which was kind of greasy and unhealthy considering we had just worked out, but it was irresistibly delicious. Then we went our separate ways to our respective apartments.

Later that night I drove around looking for a late night spot to chill at, found nothing, and ended up going to the donut store across the street from my apartment and hung out there with my laptop until 3:30AM. Another place that I’ve driven by countless times but had never gone in before. I hope to exhaust every donut shop, coffee shop, sandwich shop, bakery, bar, and restaurant in my neighborhood of West LA by the time I’m eighty.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

GuitarHero, StimpPimp and I went to the Rock the Beach event in Venice Beach. We didn’t pick up trash like those treehugging volunteers did, we were just there for the music. First up was Johnny Lang, a blues rocker who looks surprisingly young and made ugly John Mayer faces the whole time. StimpPimp enjoyed the Lang but GuitarHero thought his stuff was too simple and repetitive. I had no opinion because I am musically uneducated. Next up was the real reason why we were there, Jurassic 5. Once they hit the stage, the crowd suddenly became twice as packed. They played a bunch of their old school songs and were awesome like usual. Akil said Motherfuck George Bush to a chorus of cheers while a little ten year old boy was dancing his ass off on stage. Chali 2na is a hugely charismatic stage performer. I guess it helps that he’s like 6 foot 5. After the show we went boogie boarding. I tried to body surf for a while too but didn’t fare that well. When walking to the car through the shop areas and the small Venice streets, I had my shirt off, which is something I never do. I have a very pronounced farmer's tan, making me ridiculously sexy when my nipples are exposed, and thus I am not a big fan of self-nudity. But no one cared, except for the dog that tried to bite my feet thinking that I had socks on.

At night, when I realized the weekend was over already, I was disappointed. I said “Motherfucker!” and went to bed, thinking about the upcoming completion of Thirty Day LA.

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As I am in the process of discovering, there’s plenty of opportunities to have fun on your own in LA. But being in a massive crowd of 200 people barreling through the streets of Hollywood on bikes is a kind of fun that can’t be matched on your own.

Midnight Ridazz was the coolest LA activity I’ve ever been a part of. It’s LA’s own version of Critical Mass, where bikers from all different backgrounds get together to ride through the streets of Hollywood. It's held every second Friday of the month, meet time is 9:30PM. For some reason, they had a new Midnight Ridazz this past week, starting at Jumbo's Clown Room on Sunset, then through Hollywood Blvd past notable landmarks like Hollywood and Highland Center, Mann’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Forever Cemetary, the West Hollywood Strip, the Sunset strip, and ended in Library Park.

GuitarHero drove StimpPimp and I in his bike-storage-capable SUV to the meeting place. After a half hour of milling around, the crowd of 200 set off west on Hollywood Boulevard. At first, the biggest thrill was being on the streets in a huge mass of bikes. I am not a smiley person, but I was smiling the entire time. I yelled HOLLA! at all the party people on the sidewalks in between Vine and Highland staring at us as we rode by. In addition to all the bikers, we had a full police escort of 3 bike cops, a few squad cars, and a helicopter. The cop car would stop at an intersection to allow us to pass, then it would speed past us on the left with lights flashing and sirens blaring to block off the next intersection. The cop did this for at least twenty intersections. Then a ghetto bird flashed its lights at us as we took a break at the parking lot of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Occasionally people would stand on the sidewalks cheering for us as we passed by en masse. One biker pulled a stereo behind him blasting the song “Power to the People.” I flew down the steep hill on La Cienega, swerving in between my fellow bikers yelling "No brakes! I'm gonna die! No brakes!!!" By the end of the ride, it felt completely natural to take up an entire lane on the streets in Hollywood on a busy Friday night.

We mulled around for a little bit in Library Park and people eventually broke off and went their separate ways. We took a long and tiring half an hour riding back to our original location, finally getting back at 1AM. We ate at Sanamluang across the street, a Thai restaurant that’s open late night and everything on the menu is delicious. We went home tired, full, and happy. Greatest bike ride ever, man.

Check out the Midnight Ridazz Website for badass action shots.

Midnight Ridazz
Second Friday of every month
Meet at 9:30PM, ride starts at 10PM
Check website for meeting places

Sanamluang Cafe
5170 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027-6133
(323) 660-8006
Google Maps link

Posted by CaptainMelo at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today I rode my bike into work. I tried to push the pace, but alas, I blew my endurance right away on the first part of my trip along the Ballona Creek Trail. The path along the beach was shorter than anticipated. I started off in Playa Del Rey, got off at Dockweiler and went through the surface streets of downtown El Segundo to get to work. A mile away from work, I almost got ran over by a Lexus. I should remember not to pass on the right. Me versus 3000 pounds wouldn’t make for a very interesting match.

So I was tired all day and I needed to take an hour long nap under my desk. I was thinking that before I head home I should go jump in the ocean. Unfortunately, I just read this:

Sewage spill closes beaches

It was caused by raw sewage dumped from Culver City into Ballona Creek, which is the exact path I rode on to work today. No wonder it smelled like festering shit on the way over. It’s probably going to be even worse when I go back.

I guess my plan to wake up early on Friday and go boogey boarding is out. So is going to the beach at lunch and jumping in the water. But I can still chill out at Hennessey’s after work on Friday. And then it’s off to Midnight Ridazz, LA’s version of critical mass, where 1300 bicyclists start off in Echo Park and wreak havoc on the streets of East LA.

UPDATE:

Luckily for me, it didn’t smell at all. However, I did see some people jump in the ocean on my way back. I hope they don’t get scabies.

On the Ballona Creek Trail, there was a father and son next to the creek, both leaning back on their elbows, smiling at the flock of ducks surrounding them. Bikers and runners of all different colors, shapes, and sizes filled both sides of the trail. Kids squealed with delight as they played with basketball and soccer balls in front of their apartments. A Middle-Aged Gentleman, wearing full spandex racing gear and a fancy ass helmet, rode by me on an expensive road bike.

MAG: Great night, huh?
Me: (grunting) Yeah.

I could no longer partake in the loveliness of the evening, as I felt the urge to keep pace with him. He dusted me after about a minute. I think I’ll keep this biking to work thing up, maybe once a week. After spending the past 7 years driving around the congested freeways with ten million other furious Angelenos, it’s liberating to hop on my creaky red hybrid bike with lopsided wheels and enjoy some exercise on my way home.

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