Hidden LA Continues

The weekend of September 17th I experienced a lot hidden LA adventures.

September 17 - A Capella Fanboy
I was going to go by myself to this a Capella show at the Bootleg theatre down the street, but Jimmy joined last minute to keep me company.  I had imagined a theatre with seating where I can freely hold up my fanboy poster shamelessly, but as I entered the venue, I had discovered that it was actually more of a indie rock spot.  There was a bar and lots of standing space like a concert.  I didn't realize that indie kids were into a Capella.

The beer helped me relax. I was thankful Jimmy joined me because I would have just stood in the dark corner which would have been terrible. The Silverlake Chorus pleased the denim jacket wearing, facial hair growing, bicycle riding crowd.  After the show, I approached Manu to tell him that he did a great job, he was flattered I made him a sign and amused I didn't hold it up because I was embarrassed.  I actually found out about the performance through Manu's tumblr...  it was a great night because checking out the Bootleg theatre in my 'hood was also on my to do list.

"You made that for him!?!?"  His mom asked me about this sign I made for a guy I've never met.
"um.. yes... I have to go now! You did great!"  I think his boyfriend glared at me.  OOps.

September 18 - Self-Realization

We found ourselves at Lake Shrine, a spiritual sanctuary where we rediscovered nature, meditating and multiple forms of spirituality.

I felt like I had escaped LA.  We noticed some swans floating in the lake which we were convinced were animatronics.

Inside the windmill we meditated with images of spiritual leaders watching over us.  In the silence I noticed the irregularity in my heartbeat. 

We headed to the Bergamot Station to check out multiple art galleries

Interacting with the art

There were a couple of things that I wanted to own like funky clocks and chairs made of cork!

For dinner was Thai Patio - this amazingly cheap and delicious Thai place in Thai Town.  YES!

Ginger Chicken, Satay, Fillet Fish, Tom Kha, Drunken Noodle, etc etc. all dishes were amazing

Apparently Drunken noodle has to be spicy otherwise it's not "drunken noodle."  We are so used to control how spicy something is, we don't realize that the spice that's adding is a very important ingredient that just be controlled.  It's ridiculously American of us to get a Sandwich, light on the mayo or a Pad Thai at mild spice instead of accepting and appreciating the dish for what it is instead of altering it to meet our criteria of delicious.

In the same plaza we found this place sells insurance AND perfume!!!

Ended up in WeHo.. ugh.. but at Eleven this time!
Got dropped off - no cover with flyer - open bar for 7 minutes around midnight.

I watched my friend vomit in the toilet as I held the door for him.  Looks like he won't be drinking for a while. Looks like the Filipinos took advantage of the open bar and grabbed enough free cranberry vodkas for the rest of the night... "ME WANT MORE!"  And a drag performance by a LaRoux look-a-like.  Woot.

September 18 - More Hidden

Another thing on my todo list is visit the historic Vista Theater!  We watched The Town, which wasn't my type of film, couldn't understand their Boston accents.  But I loved the Vister theater's Egyptian theme.  There were hieroglyphics all over the walls and large Sphinx statues.

Huge screen, but only one.  I'm definitely hitting this place up for my future movie viewing endeavors... or date.  :]  Plus cover, i mean admission was only 6 bucks for matinee.

And finally, El Chavo for authentic Mexican food, next to the theatre, with decorations that made you feel like you were in the warm sidewalks of Mexico.  Though the bar had neon sombreros hanging from the ceiling... not very authentic.

I love LA.

OH Dear

Youtube star Nigahiga has abs

Oh my.

Grown Up in Downtown.

No. not me.  I'm not going to reach adulthood for another 20 years.

Sept 11: Michael's B-day, a House Warming, and a 9/11 Reclamation Party
Michael was being cute, "we should remove this couch so you guys can socialize more."  He was such a stressed host.  Turning 24, Michael invited us over to his amazing loft in downtown LA.

Amazing view. Lovely candle light set up on the patio.  Pool on the roof

In the words of my roommate, "it’s becoming increasingly clear how adult I’m becoming and how I rebel from that fact."  Is it time that I buy adult furniture and move out of my beloved Victorian home that will soon fall to the ground with the next big earthquake because it's not retrofitted? Pish posh.

How about we do the merengue with a dog instead?

But I do love visiting my friends who live in nice places.. they have AC!

 My other friend Michael from San Jose stayed the evening and left this thank you with four folded cranes.  What a sweat heart!

Labor Day Weekend

I KNOW! I'm behind!

Labor Day weekend was exhausting. It started off with me doing 8 miles worth of laps around LAX to pick up the boys in the most poorly constructed Airport in the world. Later did I learn about the LAX Cell Phone Waiting Lot where I could have waited at while their plane was delayed.

Grr. Ended up at my favorite place: Rage. EVERYONE, PLEASE STOP WANTING TO GO THERE.

==

The Boys from the Bay

SaturDAY was spent at the pool side. Me realizing that I take my friends' criticism to heart when I shouldn't have. But it happens when you try too hard to be a good host and actually care about what your friends think. SO FUCK YOU I LOVE MY GAY SAILOR SHIRT AND PIRATE THEMED BARS.

SaturNIGHT was spent at Cherry Pop -> no line, 5 dollar cover, 3 giant dance floors. AH may zing.
Sunday was the epic Lu'au.

Sunday Night was... a gay Foam Party.
Let me tell you about this foam party. With residual good vibes from the lu'au, my boys were convinced to going to a Foam party at MJs. It was magical. It was nothing I could have imagined. Dignity went out the window as suds came pouring from the ceiling onto this dance floor.

Not from that night, but just to give you an idea of what almost dying looks like.

MJs looks shady to begin with, but now imagine everyone shirtless, water up to your knees and strangers rubbing up on you. I stayed as close to my hairless Asian friends as much possible to avoid getting scratched by white men chest hairs. So this is what it feels like when you're drowning.

When the foam crept over my head, I panicked and could not breath or see. Joey had to "swim" his away across the dance floor as his life flashed before his eyes. I couldn't stop smiling because this was one unique experience. You had no choice but to take off your shirt. Everything was drenched.

You get the idea

I felt like I was in a dream and experiencing touch sensations in an extreme form. I reached a new level of intimacy with my friends. Rawr. We made it out alive, only to lose a shirt and a set of keys in the foam.

And no one got hurt except everyone got a little sick, I broke out and Jae got viral pink eye.

GOOD TIMES!

Will I do it again? Heck yeah! But when it's not as crowded. Thankfully everyone was slippery otherwise you couldn't move passed the crowd. Next time I'm bringing my underwater camera.

MJs is shameless, so vulgar... though I'd probably wear it anyway:

Bus Antics

I have decided that it's impossible to live in LA dependent on the bus.

Unlike other cities where public transportation is well integrated, the LA bus system is highly flawed. My 10 minute wait (according to the time table/google maps) turned into a 1 hour wait. $1.50 is charged PER boarding... walking around feels uncomfortable. But I'm happy to have given it a shot.

6:30 Bus Ride
This kid with long greasy hair and skinny jeans stepped on. In two minutes this guy asked if he's a musician. The kid responded that he has produced stuff. The guy said that he would be interested in working with him and wanted to exchange numbers. They searched for a pen, but could not find one. This women next to them spoke up, "I HAVE ONE!" It seemed that she offered the pen just so that she can see this conversation continue to unfold.

7PM Bus Ride
This man pushed to the back to the bus with his wife and two daughters scuffing this big black man's shoes who mumbled something. The man started to instigate a fight, shouting shit like, "you're lucky I have my wife and kids here." He then said, "let's take this off the bus." His daughters started to whine.

"Violence doesn't solve anything dad."
"You're a fool, let's go home," responded the wife.
"No... I want to teach my daughters a lesson about what to do with people like this." He kept talking aloud.

I was getting nervous. He looked like he was about to throw fists. I stayed to the side.

I was two inches from grabbing my camera phone. The big black man was amused and laughing off the awkward situation. As the bus started to thin out, the man kept taunting and then started to approach the front of the bus where the big black man was sitting. I quickly looked over and to my shock, they hugged it out.

Utter ridiculousness.

9:40PM 10:40PM Bus Ride
I made small talk with this woman from Serbia. She said she has been traveling. Her charming conversation made the bus wait in the dark bearable. We talked about how she loves traveling and how Europe public transit is far superior. She talked about loving Miami. She also talked about how difficult it will be for her to find a job in London because of new immigrant employment laws. I asked her what she did before she quit to travel. I was preparing myself for a service industry job, but was surprise to learn that she worked in IT for Procter and Gamble, but was dissatisfied with not being challenged.

So many characters walk in and out of the bus. And riding the bus would be the only way to interact with them, but when you just want to get home... these little antics don't seem to be worth the trouble.

I'm going to look more aggressively for a car, specifically a Jeep Wrangler because I think they are sexy.

CAPTCHArt

This is hilliarious!!
Folks submit comics from those word security captcha.

http://captchart.tumblr.com/

A couple of my favs from the latest submissions.

10010 Magoos



Let Chomsky



Vietnam Connann

boyeatin season

Lucius postal

Government nippol

Dancing at Full Frontal Disco

August 28:
Where you can find sexy hipster Jesus and American Apparel "models" dancing to the rhythms of obscure (unless you're hip) electro-disco dance music?  Chinatown LA! At Full Frontal Disco.

Actually I knew one song: Junior Senior, Move Your Feet.  I was screaming the lyrics.

KCRW Summer Nights brings (more) life into Chinatown with vendors and DJs in the evening.  Nested in the area is the Grand Star Jazz club that becomes amazingly fabulous once a month.

Weho go-go dancers are nothing compared to sexy Jesus.  I find him way more interesting to watch

Dance teacher Ryan from Sweaty Sundays looks evil.. "I WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO DANCE!"

Out of no where they announced that they were going to teach a dance class upstairs.  FUCK YEAH!  I pushed my way upstairs. I LOVE choreographed dance parties.  It was like the She's All That dance sequence.. except instead of prom dresses there were cross dressers and instead of tuxes there were sequins and lots of swim suits.



Danced next to Noah's Ark's Darryl Stephens.  He was alone and looking for lovin'.

We ended the night with a Tyra approved group photo

FIIIEEEEERRRRRRCE.

End of Summer BBQ

August 28:

Salami, tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella = refreshing potluck appetizer

David always ventures to the east side to kick it with us.  But this time, we made our way to his hood for a nice west side bbq.  I made the plate above, but...

I finished a bottle of Soju and was feeling the weather.

David (in white) is my love child with Michael (in forest green) because he is Vietnamese/Korean!!

Michael takes over the BBQ and the Soju/Margaritas takes over our bodies

Yes... we are doing back body rolls to Rude Boy... and yes I failed at the end by almost falling.

Portland - What a View

Man.  This whole truck accident fiasco has led me to be very behind in blogging!!  Grr!  But I intend to catch up soon.


August 23:
The last two days in Portland were spent searching for great views and stuffing our faces with more delicious Portland food.  The day started off with Tasty n Sons.  Please salivate to the pictures below.  The dish in the center was my favorite - "Polenta & Sausage Ragu"

We then headed to Scrap.  This amazing warehouse of secondhand art materials.  I bought various photo mat boards for 3 bucks when they would have cost me 25 bucks at an art store.  This place had everything!  Bottle caps, birthday cards, fabric, wires, folders, paper.  It was a arts and crafts heaven!

 

Portland City Grill offered an amazing view of the city.  The food was shit.

We kept stuffing our faces! We found this adorable fondue bar and just enjoyed the trendy venue without the LA congestion.

We found other views of the city from different rooftops and tourist spots.

August 24:

 We caught lunch with Diana.  She was able to step away from her preschool and eat Chicken Wings.  Next to the register were all the sauces and mini celery sticks for us to taste every flavor.  Alllllmost double dipped.  OOps.

Good bye Portland.  I'm going to miss your plentiful food carts, your multiple forms of transportation and your quirky attitude.  .. and maybe your strange laws like not letting people pump their own gas and all bars having to serve food while they serve alcohol.

One would say that Portland is full of hipsters, but I would say that folks in Portland aren't dressing or living a particular way to be cool (like they do in LA.) But being liberal, social/economically conscious, minimalistic and wearing flannel is just what they do... and when I saw these folks I wouldn't think, "fucking hipster" like I do when I cruise Silverlake, LA or when I look at myself in the mirror, but rather I think... you're kinda cool, just because you are... not because you're trying to be.

...oh and Diana and Sandy I miss you so much!  Thanks for letting us stay on your sunflower porch and your kitty nest bed room.  Please come home for Christmas.  PWEASE!