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)

Note: If you want some background read The Adventure Part 1 if you dont want to read this long ass post and just look at all of the pictures I took go here:
Bus Photos

So you may ask yourself why the hell is this picture here. Well this person is a representation of my past experiences exploring LA. Basically this is me (in this case I am an Asian woman) fidgeting with my ipod and ignoring the people and places around me. Things have changed though. I now was looking to open myself up to exploring Los Angeles through its people. While LA may be a pretty segregated no one can deny how diverse it is. On Day 4 it was time for me to get to know the diverse people of LA firsthand. I had made the decision that I would take various bus routes to get my from my apt in Palms to work in Pasadena and back, making sure that these routes took me through news areas of LA that I had yet to explore.

Now I’m not going to start this off by spinning some bullshit about how I got on the bus last Thursday and realized that I am no different than the typical crowd of LA busriders; but simply had decided to isolate myself in the past because I had perceived myself as not fitting into the bus-riding community. No I got in on the bus dressed up in with my shirt and tie ready for work and realized that I was the only one on the bus with sleeves. The reality of the matter is that I am privileged child who drives a car usually driven by the patriarch of a upper-middle class family and decided to take the bus in an attempt to try something new and meet people, for me taking the bus was a journey not a necessity. Today I wasn’t going to let that fact be an issue.

My trip in the morning took me from visions of diversity to a sterile environment filled with the young commuters of LA.

However I didn’t fully take advantage of the opportunity to meet new people. I struggled for most of the bus ride before I could attempt initiating conversations with the people I was sitting near. Instead I awkwardly took pictures until I pushed myself to communicate with those around me. During the hour and thirty minutes it took me to get from west la to Pasadena I got the chance to very briefly speak to a math professor, a woman who didn’t speak English, and a lady whose job had forced her to come in early this morning. When I got the nerve to engage in a full conversation with someone, the lady quickly opened up. Telling me about how she has been desperately looking for new roommates, cause her current roommates who she found on Craiglist are nightmares, and she hasn’t fully gotten use to how cold people are in LA are compared to where she grew up in Oregon. She talked and talked until I realized, “wow this girl is pretty fucking annoying”. While I had succeeded in pushing myself to approach random strangers and try to meet the people of LA I was already beginning to regret it. When I got dropped off at work I just hoped that the ride home would prove to be much different.

For my ride home I choose a route that forced me to travel through Echo Park, Los Feliz, Hollywood, and the Melrose/Fairfax districts; the areas of town that I was most unfamiliar with. My ride home got off to a fun start when I managed to chase after the wrong bus and in the process of chasing after that bus I ended up missing the actual bus that I was supposed to get on.

After I slight delay things started to move forward. I knew I had to achieve what I set out to do that morning so I quickly tried to jump into conversation with those around me.

The first person I met was a designer from Eagle Rock, who had traveled all over the world growing up in a Military family (even Anartica for god knows why). This lady took the time to even point out various photo spots that I should visit across Los Angeles.

[No picture]. The next lady I came across took the time to talk to me about her children. She had a son who had been in the military, who she continually prayed would not have to be sent abroad. In more recent years her son had been studying education at UCLA. Her family didn’t have much money so even though they were proud of him she couldn’t wait for him to finally be done with school.

Going through Hollywood I had a chance to speak to your occasional person who had moved out here to pursue their dream of acting and of course found it to be much harder than the had anticipated.

Going in the same bus across the city gave me the chance to see diversity and change first hand as the same seat would see a diverse array of faces as we traveled through various parts of town.

[Special Note: It took me a long busride to Hollywood to realize that L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology have a pretty huge presence in the city / Also people don't always like it when you keep taking pictures of them right in front of their face without saying anything]

The most exciting part of my ride had to be when I got on the 305. When I got there the busline was completely empty. I had no choice but to pursue a conversation with the busdriver (Vince) for the majority of the trip. He quickly told me of the diversity you see on this busline. The line itself goes from Watts to Westwood, traveling through Beverly Hills along the way. From time to time he takes the younger kids of his family on a trip across the busline, he calls it a life tour. He told me on this busline you can see the “depths of shit and poverty” and the richest people in the city. The bus tour has over the years become his way of trying to convince kids to go to college and then pursue a graduate degree.

Vince had his own stories to tell. He worked the past few years as a busdriver but has continued to pursue his dream career of being a music producer on the side and plays with various groups hoping for his break. Over the years his career had taken him various places, working as an exterminator for the celebrities to trying to make it big as a member of the Paparazzi. I thought the most interesting part of his life was the time he spent working in the Forum during Kareem’s time. Back in those days he had the chance to work various shows including 8 nights in a row of watching Prince perform. One of the most interesting nights he had worked was when Tina Turner came to perform and he had been placed on the lookout for Ike to make sure he didn’t cause any trouble that night.

When I had finally got dropped off I knew I had reached my goal of getting to know people across LA. The people I met gave me a sense of what this city has to offer. For the next few weeks I am going try to tone down the cynicism for a big and just explore. One thing I realized though was when people of LA turned the conversation towards me I was thrown back and hardly knew what to say. I wasn’t really sure yet how I wanted to portray myself.

Posted by The Plastic Highway at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Monday night, after my first photo 2 class of the semester at SMC, I went with ObligatedGirl on a tour of Third Street in West Hollywood near Beverly Center or whatever neighborhood it is and then Third Street in Santa Monica.

West Hollywood 3rd Street

Went to The 3rd Spot, had a Leffe Blonde and a Fat Tire, ate some food, people watched a huge party of hipster-looking industry people. I sat at the table next to the sexiest woman ever, Leanne Tweeden, and her ordinary-looking male companion. Personally I think Leanne Tweeden is the number one most stunningly hot female celebrity (in a distant second comes Kate Beckinsale), but I didn't want to act like a horny teenager with her FHM spread in hand, so I played it cool. She only saw me looking at her twice. She's just as gorgeous in person as in pictures, with great style and a beautiful smile. I spotted this other slightly older but very attractive woman the moment I stepped in the place and made eyes at her the whole time I was there. Everytime I looked over, I saw her look back, and she even walked by me with her chest one foot away from my face. But for some reason I still didn’t bother to talk to her. For the food, the good selection of beer, and the amazing eye candy, I give this place my highest endorsement of ten inches up.

Santa Monica 3rd Street

Brittania Pub, Harvelle’s again, Yankee Doodles. Nothing too interesting happened there except that the dude at Yankee Doodles hooked us up with two free games of pool.

Then capped off the night at Norm’s where we had chicken tenders. I asked for BBQ sauce and the server announced with pride that they had the worst BBQ sauce known to mankind and had to ask me twice if I was sure I wanted to try it. I was warned, but I still wanted it, so he gave it to me and waited for my reaction. If ketchup had an asshole, ate rotten vegetables and took a dump, that’s what the BBQ sauce would taste like. We shared jokes with the server about how bad it was but I still used half of it.

So there it is, on a tour of Third Street I had my first celebrity sighting of Thirty Day LA, and it was a doozy of a floozy. Time to go take a cold shower.

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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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Harvelle’s and the Blues

On Wednesday, I went with GuitarHero to Harvelle’s in Santa Monica. The place was extremely loud and extremely dark. The band playing was Ass-Pocket-Of-Whiskey. GuitarHero spotted the influences of the two lead guitarists/singers: the white guy was the controlled smoothness of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the black guy was funky wildness of Jimi Hendrix. Their soloing was quite impressive and varied. They made it look so easy, but I knew if I went home and tried it, my solos would sound like a squealing monkey. While watching a bunch of tiny white girls dance with their boyfriends in the front, I noticed the cute waitress and how she had the speed-walking thing down, handling the entire room with ease. We didn’t even ask for it, but she gave us each a plate of sausage and waffles. Apparently the food comes with the $6 cover, but it was cool nonetheless. We also ordered the $5 swamp juice: pineapple, cranberry, blue cacao, and Parrot Bay. Very sweet but pretty strong as well. I got slightly buzzed on swamp juice and talked to the waitress, who said that the best night to go there is Sunday. She only works on Wednesdays and Saturdays though. Guess one of these days I’ll have to spend an entire weekend at Harvelle’s.

Griffith Park Night Hike

On Thursday, I drove an hour and a half through LA traffic for the Griffith park night hike. It’s a free hike sponsored by the Sierra Club held every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7PM sharp. I got there late and missed the announcement that if you are a first-timer at the Griffith Park night hikes to go on nothing higher than a level 3 hike. There was a big group of about 200 people who broke off into smaller groups for their respective hikes. I followed a group of people and asked a guy what level hike they were on, and he wasn’t sure. Then he said found out it was level 4 and he didn’t want to go with them because they stopped too much. So he started running uphill, and I thought, all right, might as well run too. We barged up the trail past all the level 4 hikers, a couple of whom yelled at us to stop running. Undeterred, we ran past the group and just ahead of them was the level 4-plus group of about 15 people. The guy stopped running and joined up with his friend. He introduced himself as Gabriel, and his friend's name was Frank. Frank had introduced Gabriel to the Griffith Park night hikes. Gabriel had just been going for a couple months, while Frank had been going on the hikes every week for five years. Gabriel looked no older than 30 while Frank looked like he was around 50. I figured Frank must be in awesome shape if he went hiking every week. I was right, as Gabriel and Frank were the fastest hikers in our group.

At first I thought the hike was kind of weak, but the view of the sparkling city lights of Glendale and downtown LA was worth it. The red smog layer sat on top of a clean blue layer of sky as the sun was getting ready to set. Then we hit a steep hill and by the time I reached the top, I was breathing hard and covered in sweat. Our hike leader was a stocky guy named Andy with dyed red hair and booty shorts. We hiked up a little higher until we hit the bigger paved road, then went into a small trail that I wouldn’t have been able to see even if it was daytime. The sun had just set, and Andy told us that we were about to start our climb. Here I really struggled, since I was the only one without hiking boots. Everytime I slipped I had to put my hand down, and I would get stabbed by these tiny spiky needle things that I couldn’t even see. We climbed to a radio tower and stopped briefly to rest. Everyone was in good spirits, joking and laughing about possible death and needing a helicopter to rescue us. A few of the dudes climbed the rock instead of using a big pipe as a handhold. I tried climbing the rock but got stung by the damn needles again. By the time we hit the top, it was completely dark. As we hiked back down, I talked to Susie, who had also been going on the hikes for a couple months with her sister, who had problems with her night vision because of Lasik surgery. We found about the hike from the same source: Los Angeles Magazine. I don’t really like the lack of depth in the articles of that magazine but it does uncover a few gems once in a while. At the end of the hike, I talked to Frank and Gabriel again. Frank said he was glad I enjoyed the hike and he’d look for me next time.

While LA is extremely diverse, it's also very segregated between the Westsiders, the Eastsiders, the hipsters, the Chicanos, the Asians, the rich white people, the ghetto black people, the lifers, and the recently adopted. But at the night hikes at Griffith park, the walls come down. People come from all different backgrounds and neighborhoods to form their own kind of community. You hike in darkness with reckless abandon, knowing that if you slip and fall, you'll be helped back up because you're with friends. I'm definitely going back.

Late Night Driving Tour of Torrance

My high school friend PimpFace just recently bought a townhouse in Torrance. He’s the first of my friends to buy a house, so I thought I’d visit him and give him a housewarming present. His townhouse is very new and on a quiet street. He gave me a tour of the place and I was impressed. Big kitchen with granite countertops, built-in surround sound system, a huge balcony, hardwood floors, and decent sized rooms. The kid is younger than me, and I wonder how many decades down the road it will be until I can afford a place like the one he just bought.

After hanging out and watching TV, we decided we needed some late night grub. Knowing that Torrance is full of Asian people, he wanted to find an Asian restaurant that was open. We drove around for almost an hour and saw that Torrance has every American restaurant you could ever want. But we still couldn’t find an Asian place that was still open at 12:30AM. The Korean BBQ places were even closed. I was on a mission to find someplace still open other than In-N-Out, even though we were no longer hungry and ready to go to sleep. Finally at 1AM, after combing the streets of Sepulveda, Hawthorne, Crenshaw, and Western, we gave our search. I dropped PimpFace back off at his deluxe townhouse and headed home. As I made a turn back onto Hawthorne, I looked to my left and saw a small Japanese restaurant still open with a few customers inside. What a fucker. So if you’re ever in Torrance with a late-night Asian food craving on a slow Friday night, go to Yamabuki Restaurant & Bar two blocks north of Hawthorne and PCH.

Harvelle’s
1432 4th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Google Maps link
Cost: $6 cover, $3 shots, $5 swamp juice, $6 drinks

Yamabuki Restaurant & Bar
23863 Hawthorne Blvd
Torrance, CA
(310) 791-0388
Open until at least 1AM

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On my twenty-fourth birthday, I got carded when I was buying alcohol at the store, and the cashier guy was surprised that I was 24. When I asked him how old he originally though I was, he said 18. So not only did the guy remind me that I look like a little boy, but also that I was already 24, which made me feel old. On my birthday this year I was glad that I wasn’t reminded of how young I look, how old I actually am, and that I didn’t have to buy my own alcohol.

I haven’t been planning my activities lately, resorting to doing everything last-minute. It was 10AM on a Tuesday morning. I had the day off, which meant a day of opportunity ahead of me. I knew I wanted to drive somewhere away from the city, preferably by the beach. Then LazyBoy told me that the guys were planning to take me out to dinner. I told them I didn’t know if I would be around, but I’d call them later. I busted out the door with full intention of taking a day trip to Santa Barbara. I never made it that far.

UPDATED: Pictures from the Beach Tour, after the jump.

Continue reading "Birthday Beach Bash" »

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Monday, August 21, 2006
What: Gas Lite, Liquid Kitty, Tattle Tale Room
Where: Santa Monica, West LA, Culver City
Cost: $24 for 3 drinks
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

The day I decided to tackle Thirty Day LA, I went online and planned out my first two weeks of activities. On my fourth week of adventures, I was getting a little burnt out. Not from all the fun, but from all the planning. I didn’t really want to spend time looking for stuff to do anymore. The only thing that kept me going was a strong desire to burn more money on alcohol. Technically, once the clock hit 12, it would be Tuesday night, which would be my birthday. I thought I would go revisit one of the places I had fond memories of from my birthday last year, Liquid Kitty. I vaguely recalled that there was a karaoke machine. Might as well make a tour out of it and visit as many karaoke dive bars as I could stand.

Gas Lite
2030 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Google Maps link
(310) 829-2382
Cost: No cover, $6 drinks

This entire bar area at Gas Lite smelled like vomit. Despite this, it was pretty packed on a Monday night. The bartender was really cool and immediately noticed me and asked for my drink order. When I went to Backstage on the first day of my adventures, I had to stand around, staring directly into the bartender’s eyes and wait, but she kept ignoring me, even turning her back and counting cash from the register just so she wouldn’t have to serve me. This dude was much cooler. I found an open bar stool near the front and watched people sing. An Asian girl at a table full of dudes gave me the stink eye, and I looked to my right and saw a couple cute girls. They looked over and quickly looked away, horrified that I had made eye contact with them. Then the KJ announced she was having problems with her mouse and that it would take a while to restore the music. Since I was out to hit up karaoke bars and not girls who had no interest in me, I got up to leave. As I was leaving more attractive girls filed through the door. I didn’t indulge my urge to turn back and stay a little longer.

Liquid Kitty
11780 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Google Maps link
(310) 473-3707
Cost: No cover, $7 mixed drinks, $9-10 martinis

Liquid Kitty is known for its strong martinis and comfortable atmosphere. I took an empty seat at the bar, and there was an empty seat on each side of me. The bartender made me a strong rum and coke, but I only tipped him a dollar, so the second one I ordered was decidedly weaker. I gave him two bucks to make up for it. I like doing things backwards. The place was pretty empty, which was on par with what I remembered from the last time.

This is another one to add to my collection of barfing in the bathroom stories. After getting drunk on sake at my birthday dinner last year, my friends and I headed over to Liquid Kitty in West LA. Because I was a very wise person back then, I proceeded to have three martinis. This resulted in me spending an hour on the floor of the bathroom puking into the toilet, while the stall door kept trying to close on my ass. The workers told me to leave, and I spent another half hour puking into the planter outside. They were nice enough to let me stay there until I could move again. Good times.

This year, I thought I would be a little tamer. Relaxing with my drink, I watched someone sing a rock song when I saw the dudes sitting next to me doing the air-guitar-hero.

Me: Guitar Hero?
Dude 1: Yeah!
Dude 2: WOO! GUITAR HERO! YEAAH! (runs over and high fives me)

Dude 2 wasn’t even drunk, he was just that excited about Guitar Hero. So we talked about that, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Supernatural (the rapper not the shitty WB/CW show), and work. Dude 2 told me he owned a post-production facility in Santa Monica and how he would invite clients over and spend a couple hours rocking out with Guitar Hero instead of doing actual work. Dude 1 got up and sang an old rock song that I didn’t recognize because I’m the least musically educated person in all of Los Angeles, and he tore it up. Dude 2 told me to look up his company, I said cool, and they took off. I watched one more singer and then took off myself. I had one more place to visit before the night ended.

Tattle Tale Room
5401 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230
Google Maps link
(310) 390-2489
Cost: No cover, $3 shots, $5 drinks

I drove over to pick up Tiny and called GuitarHero (my friend, not the game) to meet us at Tattle Tale Room. There was a drunk older guy passed out next to the juke box as we walked in. The lights were pretty bright inside for a dive bar. I asked the KJ if I had enough time to sing a song, and he said he’d try. I told him it was my birthday, and he gave me the same response: he’d try. Tiny bought me some drinks including a fruity and delicious shot. GuitarHero arrived and we decided to sing Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” in the style immortalized by Jack Black in High Fidelity. It was last call, and our chances didn’t look good. Then the KJ guy said it was my turn, apologized to the two people who were in line in front of us, and said it was my birthday and the seven or so people who were there cheered. So I got up on the mic with GuitarHero and Tiny and we belted out Let’s Get It On as everyone danced and sang along.

I was rather happy and drunk as we went home. It was a good way to start off my birthday. Satan had given me the next day off so I didn’t even have to wake up early in the morning. Good thing too because after I got back and stormed around the apartment to work off my buzz, it was already 2:30AM. I looked forward to my day of freedom. There’s nothing better than ditching work on a summer day instead of slaving away at something insignificant inside a fluorescent-lit office building. I went to bed wondering how I might find significance on my birthday and in the rest of my life as well.

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Thursday, August 17, 2006
What: Ercoles, Abbott’s Habit, Inti-Illimani.
Where: Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier
Cost: $36 for food, drinks, parking, and music CD
Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

I love tours. On Thursday I took a mini-tour along the coast, from Manhattan Beach to Venice to Santa Monica. This one was less extravagant than the hipster tour of Silver Lake.

I started off at Ercoles, a local dive bar in Manhattan Beach. I was at least half the age of all the people there. Regardless, it was interesting listening to all the regulars chat it up with the workers about baseball. The cook had a little window that opened up to the street through which he talked to his homies chilling outside. I ordered a Stella and a juicy, delicious 1” thick burger. It was dripping with mayo, ketchup and mustard, but the juiciness of that thick ass patty catapulted it to my top five list of best burgers ever.

• Howard’s Bacon and Avocado Burger
  
• Friend BerkCruzer’s made-from-scratch beef and onion burger
  
• Ercoles juicy burger
  
• The Counter burger with grilled onions, roasted peppers, avocado, Dijon balsamic dressing
  
• Original Tommy’s chili burger
  

Then I drove over to Santa Monica and like a true tourist, I went to the Pier. Every Thursday this summer they have a free concert on the Santa Monica Pier sponsored by Amoeba Music. The performing act for this Thursday was Inti-Illimani, a Chilean band. From the Washington Post taken from the Cal Performances website:

Inti-Illimani stands today as Chile's ambassador of human expression, its unique sound a mantra for peace in the world and within ourselves. Springing from traditional Chilean roots and playing on more than 30 wind, string, and percussion instruments, the group's combination of instrumentals and vocals captures the spirit of sacred places, people's carnivals, daily lives, loves, and pains—all combining to paint an extraordinary cultural mural. Enough to raise anyone's spirits—a program full of melodic energy, rhythmic vitality, and exotic timbres.

I heard them playing all the way from Ocean Avenue as I was walking over. There were 8 guys each playing different instruments, all of them at the top of their form. Some of their songs are instrumental, some have one singer, and some have all of them singing. I didn’t understand much, but the songs themselves alternated between upbeat and uplifting. There were about 400 people in the crowd all bobbing to the beat. There was a big truck with a videocamera on top and a giant spotlight, and bubbles were blown over the audience the entire time. I spotted a baby in his mother’s arms being bounced to the beat, and then he threw his arms in the air and bumped it to the beat as well. There was a lady standing next to me who was by herself too, and she translated for me some of what the bandleader Jorge Coulon said in between songs -- how the world is actually a small place and their music and culture tries to bring people together. I thought they succeeded in their efforts quite well. I bought their CD, Grandes Exitos, which the guy told me is the CD to get to know them. Driving home on the 10, windows open and music blasting, I thought about how even if I try I can never truly be alone in LA, especially when I get the opportunity to spend a balmy summer night outdoors surrounded by hundreds of people enjoying an amazing concert.

Posted by CaptainMelo at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After an abortive attempt to do some maintenance on my car and missing out on my original plans to check out the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market and the Melrose Flea Market, I called up ObligatedGirl and she suggested we go on a hipster tour of Silver Lake. Excellent idea, I thought.

I looked in my closet to see if I had anything that could help me pose as a poser. I settled on a blue short sleeve movie shirt over a gray long sleeve shirt. Didn’t quite work. ObligatedGirl offered her brother’s tight burgundy shirt from American Apparel for the next time we go out to Silver Lake.

It started off innocently enough: having a couple beers at a beer garden. But then I drank a little too much, like usual, and we ended up taking on a massive expedition in search of some hipsters to hang out with. Unfortunately, it was a quiet Sunday night, and I guess since most hipsters are pretty chill people who happen to be poor and need to wake up on Mondays to work, we didn’t see too many of them. Here’s what we ended up doing:

• Red Lion Tavern: awesome Spaten Oktoberfest beer, huge plate of fries, relaxing outdoor beer garden
  
• Albertson’s: bought a bottle of Captain Morgan, black cashier asked us if we were Chinese because usually he only sees Chinese girls with white guys there
  
• Coffee Bean: got iced coffee and surprisingly saw zero Asian Fetish couples. Dumped 3 shots of Captain Morgan into each of our drinks.
  
• Drove around the actual lake. Quite nice
  
• Good Microbrewery and Café: told waitress we were Vegan, she was genuinely interested in how it was like. We lied and said it had just been a month for us and it was pretty hard. We looked at the expensive menu and told them we’d be back
  
• Green Leaves Vegan Restaurant: vegan fish sandwich for ObligatedGirl, Pad Thai with tofu for me. Quite delicious, surprisingly. Zero hipsters, two AF couples.
  
• Adult Movie Store: perused, debated about how it was degrading to females, left.
  
• El Cid Flamenco restaurant, was closed so we left. Saw one Asian Fetish couple. Asked bartender where 4200 club was, he said it was down the street one block.
  
• 4100 Bar: Yeah, we got the name wrong. Sat at the bar, hardly anyone there, left.
  
• Gelato store: They let us in even though they had been closed for 5 minutes, gave us one cup of gelato for free, and we sat outside and chilled out with some hipsters. A great way to end the evening.
  

Two drunk wannabe hipsters on a superb tour of Silver Lake: Priceless.

Posted by CaptainMelo at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)