Downtown with Ignia

August 6

Do NOT go to Bottega Louie for brunch.  It's a new-ish menu that they added.  Check out how our eggs Benedict came out:

No explanation just plopped it on the table.  Jon summed up his dissatisfaction with the restaurant on yelp for you to check out.  What a disaster.

The pizza on the other hand was fantastic.

The Disney Concert Hall is ideal for jumping photos

I tried to do this leap at the camera method, but it was a bit dangerous

Awwww Key Club friends.

Alysia being schmexy.

Lucha VaVoom!

Mexican wrestling has been on my to-do list!
Though the entire time I was like.  What am I watching??!? 


Lucha VaVOOM - The Home of Sexo Y Violencia

"Mexican Masked Wrestling + Burlesque + Comedy = Lucha VaVOOM It's good vs. evil, Lucha Libre exhibition-style matches."

This happens only thrice a year at The Mayan Theatre - a giant venue in downtown and I was lucky enough to finally catch it.  It was sold out with 2,000 spectators.

I always wondered why people were so interested in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the fact is... it's entertaining.  But Lucha VaVoom throws in crazier costumes, little people and tittie tassels.  So many tassels.   I was also lucky enough to enjoy some homoerotic-ness.  It's only fair with every boobie was a man ass.

It was bromance to another level as two of the muscular wrestlers simulated 69, and kissed each other on the lips when the "won" the match.  There was also a pat on the ass to show sportsmanship... except the ass was exposed because his speedos were pulled down and it wasn't a pat but a long awkward grab.

The show also started off with a pony pogo stick striptease which blew my mind. The cowboy had like 5 thongs that he kept pulling off.

Caught one of the wrestlers during break

I also enjoyed the fact that everyone was into it.  A handful of folks dressed up and a cluster of people hung out by the bars pounding tequila.  Check out the mask I got.

I loved this performance.  Everything was a striptease!  Tittie tassels spun for 5 minutes!

 This guy has some mad hula hoop skills.  He came out dressed as a sun goddess, then stripped to expose his man chest and leather fetish all while spinning a hoop 'round his body.  BOO YAH.  It was mesmerizing.

 

This midget in a chicken costume jumped off a giant speaker into the audience right into the arms of security.  OMG. 

I had pretty good seats the whole night.  At first I was right against the ring in the back, but decided to  move because all I could see was ass.

Moved to the front and got real close and personal with the entertainers. I would come back fo sho'

Huffington Post described it as an unhinged circus with an increasingly rowdy crowd watching rudos (the "bad guy" wrestlers) take on the tecnicos (the "good" guys).

"Equal parts comedic jest and brilliantly choreographed feats of costumed athleticism." Well said. 

More Pics
Even More Pics
I pulled some of these pictures off their facebook page

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!

Yuppies at a Burlesque

@The Edison in Downtown LA.

I felt like a Yuppy with other young urban professionals looking to pay 12+ for cocktails.  Big Willie's Burlesque was amazing and what I call, Tasteful Stripping.  It was some schmuck's birthday so he stood awkwardly as the dancers unbuttoned his shirt and brushed a feather boa around his body.

I had some lady friends with me who joined me in a little Cha Cha and Swing dancing.  After they left, my gay boys and I did the twist on the dance floor. I was happy to be with friends who didn't mind dancing on a floor that was fully lit.  But wish I had a girlfriend who would always be my dance partner.

Relax, loosen your tie, shake your hips, hold my hand.  Feel the live music... don't think about work.  But we were yuppies, work talk is all we know.  We vented about our co-workers, our promotions, our hours...

Michael was with me.  We stole friendly kisses and hand holds in a space designated to those of more conventional life styles, but come on.  Prop 8 overturned!  I like testing my space. I like making people look over - through dancing funny or kissing a handsome boy who just got off work, but still looks like an Asian Hugh Jackman.

A friend told me I smelled like "man" that night.  I took this as a compliment and hope that "man" translate to good... hard working.. desirable.

Though I definitely do not look like Isaiah Mustafa I hope I can swan dive to the best night of your life.

Summertramp DTLA Waterpark 2010

This event could only be described in bullet points (or I'm just that lazy)

• Take a dive bar with a huge parking lot.  
• Cover the lot with turf. 
• Put in an above ground pool.
• Install a giant water slide.  
• Give out waterguns
• Get Vitamin water to give out free Vitamin Water
• Get a food truck to give out free tacos
• Get two guys with their asses hanging out to serve jello shots
• Have free alcohol from noon -1PM
• Hire an amazing DJ
• Have Grindr advertise
• Have Mr.Black advertise
• Donate the proceeds to some non-profit with the letters LGBT in it...

....and you have Summertramp.

Can you spot my underarm bush?  No apologizes this time, it's a pool party.

I brought my underwater disposable camera so you'll see those pictures like next year.

Down the street was the American Apparel factory store.  We felt like we were at a rooftop party in New York.  But that's the thing about LA, you can be anywhere.. and still be in LA.  I guess that's why a lot of movies are shot here.

When I got home, I rushed to the bathroom.  I think the communal pool gave me dysentery.

1920s ERA

My coworkers invited me out to ERA, a 1920's night at a Rum bar hidden in a parking lot in downtown LA last Friday.  Dressing up was encouraged.

Earlier in the day I was struggling to find something 1920s to wear, but I had everything I needed: suspenders, baggy stripped slacks and a dress shirt.  I didn't have a handkerchief so I disguised a clean black sock by folding it into a triangle and stuffing it in my pocket- perfect!  The girls had to be more creative, but they turned out looking very good.

I love these things.  I would never turn down something so interesting.

Photo editing c/o ChungkingExpressions.



We started the evening at my coworker's beautiful downtown loft and 5 shots of tequila.  As a group of four, we finished an entire bottle.  Yes, we were out to step into time with the help of this club and mr.alcohol.

I particularly enjoy this photo with the classic elevator and candid attitude.

Thankful the place was a walk away.  With each step we took the town was transformed.

We made it and started to mix run with our tequila to some jazz music in one room and timbaland in the other.  I was very impressed that everyone was dressed to the theme.

I found myself to be extra friendly to the women who were there.  They were so elaborately dressed.  I talked to out of towners and a lawyer and just made friends with everyone there.

I even talked to this synthesize player.  I don't remember how I even initiated conversation, but he gave me his business card.

Danced. Chatted. Escaped back to the loft.  Drunk.  Fed ourselves pizza rolls that I somehow bought from Ralphs in a drunken stupor.  AND... I took off my suspenders, dress shirt, pants and paraded around my coworker's house in my boxers and black socks.  I don't remember this.  Someone picked me up and I remember having my clothes in my arms and my feather boa that I brought for the girls which they didn't use.  I believe I was in the street trying to get into his car... somehow I gave him instructions to my house in Echo Park.

I opened the gate, dropped my shit and greeted my roommates who had just came back from a concert/after party.  "I can see your crack," declared Ern.. then I rushed to the bathroom to vomit out the 1920s.

Jimmy came up to me and said, "why does it say 'Not Tonight' in sharpie on your chest?"  I started laughing, took off my boxers and fell asleep in the nude.  Feels good to be Messy.