Coachella 2014

I was lucky enough to attend Coachella with experts.  And I was impressed with everything I experienced.  Food was good, lines were short, people had good energy.  It was spectacular.  I also couldn't get over the beautiful bodies and faces.  It was obvious that people spent months to be seen at Coachella. Abs abs abs everywhere and a pretty face to match.

I was expecting dirt ground, but it was all grassy and comfortable to lay on.
I was expecting long lines, but there were none
I was expecting insufferable heat, but there were plenty of shady spots and air conditioned booths
I was expecting my phone to die and to get lost, but my group had a lit up guiding lantern that kept us together and we found charging stations
I was expecting to pay an arm and a leg for water, but it was ALL free with easy filling stations
I was expecting to be bored, but as Jimmy described it - it's a playground with tons to see and things to interact with.
I was expecting to have difficulty sleeping, but the Marriot Villa Suite that we stayed at was pretty upscale.
I was expecting to wait an hour to leave, but our shuttle got us out of there quick!

I was expecting to be exhausted... that.. was a reality.  Currently I'm tired and spent all of Monday just laying down.  From the standing, the heat, the non-stopness of it all.

I stayed pretty sober, only drinking in the morning on the shuttle before I was forced to dispose the liquid before entering the grounds.  But it wasn't hard to sneak things in, but I wasn't really trying.

I wish I had taken pictures of all the unique things that people held up in the air to keep from getting lost in the crowd.  They printed large pictures of their faces/celebrities, they held up glowing gummy bears, they tied stuffed animals on sticks.  Even though there were 45,000 people there, It was easy to stay together if you held up something.  And the creativity made this part of the event really interesting.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/50-best-things-we-saw-at-coachella-2014-20140414/best-way-to-be-found-giant-heads-0996908

What's even more amazing is that Coachella transforms at night.

The best thing to do when the sun sets is to remove your sunglasses and use a face wipe to peel off the layers of sunscreen on your face.  All of a sudden, you're at a different festival.  And people start to glow.

What about the music?  The performances were amazing.  And the light shows made me feel like I was tripping on drugs when I was completely sober the entire time.  I learned that it's always better to be in front, but that's difficult when you want to see multiple acts.

This is what I saw:

Friday
HAIM - Ern/Erik got me into HAIM.  These girls were fun to watch with their facial expressions... they were our welcome to Coachella
Bastille - Just stopped by to listen to their hit Pompeii
Ellie Golding - Fun to sing along to though I couldn't understand her when she spoke
Chromeo - SO good!  I was dancing around, I love the beats
Flume - I don't remember
Zedd - We were deep in Sahara air hangar-like arena immersed in lights, this was intense

Saturday
Banks - She was wearing a big hat and looks like Monica from Friends.  She was hitting those high notes
CHVRCHES
Capital Cities - The trumpet player was good... and Safe and Sound.
MGMT - Missed their hit songs to catch Lorde
Lorde - Amazing live
Solange - We were pretty close and Solange is a very amazing performer.  Once Beyonce came out, the crowd did NOT know how to react.  I think I lost my breath.  They danced together.  It was amazing.

Pharrell Williams - Wish I was closer to the stage to see ALL of his surprise guests!  His voice was shocked so he couldn't really sing

Sunday

Flosstradamus - Jimmy LOVES this DJ.  We were in the front and ended up moshing. I was worried because I was surrounded by children, but it was pretty fun!  Flosstradamus got all of the girls up on the guys shoulders at one point.  And though I missed a confetti shower, I experienced a water bottle shower when the group encouraged everyone to throw something in the air when the beat dropped.  Ridiculously fun.

I'm on the right with Jimmy

Little Dragon - She's part Asian.  Yay.  I saw her first song.  Yawn.
Calvin Harris - We were a bit far and the closer we got, the harder it was to see.  Still great!
Lana Del Rey - Great vocals, but I wanted to sit for this performance
Disclosure - Amazing. Amazing.  When it was just me and Jimmy, I pushed us closer to the front and he fell in love with the night when Sam Smith appeared.

Sad that I missed 
The Knife - Ern said they were great theatrical performers.
Fatboy Slim - Just wanted to hear their "She's All That" Song.. Funk Soul Brother
Empire of the Sun - For that one song I love...
The Yuma tent was also supposed to be pretty inside with hardwood floor and shiny things

During Disclosure, we found a large group of older shirtless meaty gays obviously tripping on something and making out with each other.  "I can't until I reclaim my gay youth when I turn 40 I thought to myself."

Jimmy put together a video of the weekend which included the Do Over Pool Party.



I think I'll go again next year.  But really think about wearing things that glow for the evening and getting creative with the guiding sticks.

Brunch with the boys at Ace Hotel Cafe: King's Highway

Cait wait!  I hope the prices don't go up again.

Most of these pictures were taken from Instagram #Coachella - photo credit given in file name

Holi - Festival of Colors 2014

Almost missed the second annual Holi Festival in Norwalk.  Last year was amazing and I was hoping to experience the same this year.  But something about Jimmy not being able to go made it a little empty.  Plus, I've already experienced Holi so the novelty wore off.  What a debbie downer.  Next year I'm thinking about going in the later afternoon, the energy and light will be a little different.

I love going through pictures from photographers who brave the colors and bring their DSLRs.

John Truong, for example, makes this event look like a dream.  He has these amazing portraits that should be published.  SEE MORE.  He also did the Holi at Will Rogers Beach which I feel like I will crash next year so that I can finally use my bags of powered that I bought separately.  These bags were not welcome at the Norwalk event so that they could profile from you buying there.   There may be safety concerns too.

Other pictures:

When people ask about this event they say.. Oh the running thing... Yeah sure.  The Color Run.  Except without the running and with food, music and dancing.. aka... the festival the Color Run was based off of.  I've mentioned this before, but people gotta look up the origin of things.

My favorite pictures from instagram (credit in the file name).  Lots of hands!

And this is us:

Purple is the harshest color.  The boys had a good time.  When we took a shower, colors covered the drain like Carrie.

Holi - Festival of Colors 2013

Color Toss by Ribshots

After last year's epic Holi fail, I was determined to celebrate the Hindi festival of colors properly.  I was trilled to discover a legitimate festival just 20 miles away in Norwalk and booked the date months in advance.  Last year, I found something online.. I gathered about 6 guys hyping up the festival and when we arrived, it was as if we were crashing an Indian family's picnic.  They were celebrating, but there were about 30 of them in a random park... it was a little awkward so we just walked in circles and dashed away.

This year was different.  Full on festival with hundreds in attendance at Excelsior High School in Norwalk.  There was a color toss every hour, yoga, live music all day and food.

I first discovered Holi in 2006 back in Berkeley when I had Indian friends:

Check out the twinky version of myself.  Holi is meant to be wet.  But with all the smart phones and cameras - colored, edible dry powder has been used... but if you had Asama, you would dye.  See what I did there?

It's to celebrate spring, fertility, love... you're supposed to walk around and rub colors on strangers and wish them a happy Holi.  Though we used this opportunity to touch hot shirtless guys...  the value is still there.

Check out that Greek god on the left... yes... Happy Holi

Practicing color tossing

Enjoying the perfect weather

We had a stranger straddle our legs to take the picture. :D

Here comes the color toss:


As you can see.. it was amazing... until I couldn't breath.  I told myself not to panic and breathed through my nose.  Good lord.

The second time we learned and watched from afar.  Check out Charle's video:


Eventual you become a brown mess.

If you're too lazy to press play, here's gif:

Jimmy looks like he has an earring here

Amazing pictures found below:
Russo Mutuc
Demotix
Live Free Mind State
Mark Gonzales

Apparently there are a handful of tutorials online on how to take your DSLR to Holi and not damage it.  We saw a ton of professional cameras with plastic bags and rubber bands wrapped around.  We stuck with our iPhones.  With a little rub on the grass they were as good as new.

Group

Spring is here!  Celebrate good karma and well being!  I feel like this is the theme of March with my spin classes and portion control.  I'm still eating lots of food... just a little less. YourMamaStay!

Charles' POV

Amazing shot by B3N2T

Discovering LA Festivals (Hester, Bloomfest, Renegade Craft)

Outdoor Movie Screenings

Los Angeles LOVES Outdoor Movie screenings.  You don't understand... the city is IN LOVE with the idea of turning a parking lot, field of grass, cemetery into a screening of classic movies through the summer.  BYOLC  (Bring your own lawn chair.)

Cinespia - sit on the dead at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, enjoy a movie
Devil's Night Drive-In - park your car downtown, enjoy a "drive-in" movie
Street Food Cinema - Stuff your face with overpriced food truck food, enjoy a movie
Silverlake Picture Show - Sit on the street painted green that simulates a hipster park... and enjoy a movie

There's a shit ton more in various neighborhoods showing random things. Very LA... like food trucks, DJs, photo booths once someone hears how easy it is to rent the equipment, the urban sprawl goes crazy.  Calm your nerves LA, we don't need a DJ at the cupcake shop, we don't need foodtrucks at the Promenade which already has tons of restaurants, we don't need photo booths at random house parties... wait.. never mind on the last one.

Anyway, closer to my heart is festivals during the summer.



Hester Street Fair - Hollywood Indie Night Market

Under the Hollywood lights, we found ourselves in a parking lot with the usual vendors and foodtrucks.  The lightbulbs strung back and forth caught my eye as well as the illuminating palm tree.  The spice booth was so fragrant and Charles lucked out with two cute shirts from the poster vendor that I see at every festival.

Looking forward to the Indie Design Market on August 18th.

Bloomfest

Checked out the Bloomfest with Sean in the Art District of downtown LA.  This area is covered with amazing street art.  Great neighborhood to just walk around, but don't go too far, you'll hit skid row.  There was some live music, but I didn't get a chance to stick around that long.

 Renegade Craft Fair

Unicorn Crafts had this cute booth with cardboard cutouts.  Photo booth ideas!  I love this free event at LA State Historic Park.  I believe it's my 3rd time going (2011, 2010) .  I grabbed some etsy-like magnets for folks and headed out before the sun got too aggressive.

These festivals were a bit similar to one another.  I need to find me some cultural festivals.

Searching for a Community

During these festivals, I took notice of people with SLR cameras snapping pictures of the same things I was with my point and shoot, but at a different more artistic angle: crouching down, leaning forward, zooming as close as possible, doing the splits... basically looking ridiculous so that their pictures look cooler than mine.... at all costs.

I thought to myself, where do these pictures go?  I did some research and used the festivals as my keywords and the tools of the internet to find interesting people who probably live down the street.

Google Blog Search - Though a more refined search through google made sense, most of the blogs featured were actually news articles with no personal spin, which wasn't what I was looking for.

Flickr Search - Nothing, what a mess of a site.

Blog Catalogue and Blog Lovin' - Nothing

Tumblr Tag Search -  I found an overwhelming amount of tagged posts.  I filtered out the tinyboppers and subscribed to the tumblr's that resinated: Kriziaphoto, Bassanio Gratiano, Always Within Never, Jfluxly, Jam0, Anything and Everything.  And this why the #hashtag has been so important in an effort discover more.


I've gone through all of these people's post to determine if they were worth following and I'm excited to have found some Angelinos who are obsessed with exploring their city and sharing their stories.

Friends would ask me how I would find these random blogs online; simply, you have to look.  I also realized that "hidden gem" and "hole in the wall" make great yelp! keyword searches when I'm looking for unique places to eat.

Korean Festival

I found it very interesting that none of my Korean friends knew about the annual Korean Festival in LA.  Nor did they have any interest in checking it out.  I guess because we live next to the giant that is Ktown - everyday we drive through it's like a Korean Festival.

But I was glad to check that off the list.  (Still need to celebrate Holi - Indian Festival of Colors and the Brazilian Festival that I missed earlier in the year.

Never seen Kim Chi in bulk like this before.  There were so many Kim Chi samples!  Lots of other foods too, but I couldn't read the signs... those circles and lines... is it the food item or price?  It's like hieroglyphic binary code.

Old man planning beer pong, free clay pot (the line was too long), floral crafts and a B-BOI competition.

Check out this giant white person. "ME WANT EXOTIC FOOD."

We continued our explore heading toward Northern Ktown where we found Zion Market nested in the middle of korean shopping mall.  I concluded that as you get more north, Ktown becomes nicer and expensive.  South of Wilshire Ktown is more hood - where Koreans and Mexicans fight for parking space.

We sampled this duk bok gi, loved it, and made it that night by adding ramen.  YUM!

Oh... Koreatown Pho is always suspicious.  Pho 24 also offers authentic Vietnamese gyoja and chow fun.  STFU.

Thai New Year

It's always good to go to the Thai Temple for Thai new years to get the real culture and food.  But this year we decided to check out the large festival that consumed Thai Town in Hollywood.

Blocks worth of tents and people that blocked traffic on LA's mainstreet.

Thanks to Steve who actually lives there, we were able to borrow his parking spot.  Otherwise it would have been impossible.  Lots of food, Singha beer, a pagent and Thai Boxing (Muay Thai).  They had design-your-own-umbrella workshops!

I'm a giraffe creepster.

Indonesian Festival 2010

It was the longest Saturday of my life.  The night before all these guys crashed at 321 after Free Love clubbing.  We woke them all up at 8AM for dim sum, cuz that's how we do it.  We don't sleep in, we do shit even if we're hung over.  Can you spot the fiercest bitch walking out of Capital Seafood?  Haters gonna hate.

And then... INDONESIAN FESTIVAL in K-TOWN!

Why do I love festivals?
FOOD!  And learning about about people, like Jimmy!

Only in LA do you have these photo backdrops at festivals. Goodness.  Who's that FOB in the back wearing traditional Indonesian garb?

Mike from Season 1 of 321 was visiting from out of town! Roommate love.

 

Indonesians.. yummy

This is Jimmy's ethnic group.  One of "a lot" in Indonesia.

I believe this is a mating dance.  3 clowns compete to mate with the village princess.  GET IT.

Retreat to the park:

We found ourselves laying a park resting from the night before.  I felt like I was jet lagged.  ANNND Ern got stung by a bee.

Home:

Dinner was Salmon, Pizza and Rice at the table like a family.... good night good night.