Dancing in June

I've been focusing on looking for a new job, getting a new job, training for the new job and doing the new job that I have put blogging on the back burner.  This is no good.

Though I'm not a good blogger, this is my detox.  My goal for the night is to close June even though September is in a couple of days.

In a way, being late forces me to look back on what I did months before selecting my favorite pictures to write about.

In June, I discovered that I was successful in doing a lot of random things, but most of them involved dancing in the street.

We participated in the free Dance Downtown by the Music Center in downtown LA.  We attended Bhangra lessons and twisted our elbows into the night sky following the energy of the instructor who was in the middle of the floor.  At one moment I was in the center imitating her fluid movements under the lanterns.  Love.  Need to continue to do these next year - 70's and 80's night!

Grand Performances was also hosting a Dirty Dancing Movie Screening Dance-a-long!  20 minutes before the screening they taught us some simple dance moves to perform along with the movie during the closing scene.  Also, during the movie, there were actual dancers imitating the dance that we showing on the screen.  This movie has become one of my favorites.   What a classic!

Dina had the urge to celebrate her birthday at Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney.  She asked us to dress up.  So I wore my giraffe print shirt and socks.  She had zebra stockings and Sarah wore a Cheetah print top.  Their friend was a cow.

Once again I was on the dance floor randomly on the streets following along to live music.  I should really take up partner dance lessons.  I really like it.

Wow.  Really drunk Karaoke, but that led to some intense dancing slash scream.

Above is a collection of unflattering karaoke faces.

"Hey Girl, whathcu gonna sing next?"

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I also did a lot of sitting at places that have been on my to-do list for such a long time!!!

Finally visited Ali Mama Cafe - a Turkish Hookah bar in Silverlake.  Had a good time trying to pass smoke from each other's mouths.  Looks like he's sucking his SOUL!

We hit up Heu one night for their awesome Pineapple Soju served in a Pineapple pitcher and apple cups.  The apple cups were delicious!!  Charles' cousin was there so we got some "service." because she was a hot korean girl.  Service, pronounced "ser VISS" is code for ON THE HOUSE things... 3 extra pitchers of soju!! Girls are useful!

We also sat down and got entertained by Steve and his collection of exotic musical instruments which he plays fluently... fluently?  fluently. The Ruan, Pipa and his newest - the Harp.

We walked around the Arts District downtown and found some interesting corners.

Random making for a hip hop music video.  It's all coming together now.

Found another JR piece!
June is now closed!  WEEE!

Straight Guy Handshake

I just started a new job and the biggest challenge I'm facing is not the new projects, roles or location.  Though location is pretty challenging as I face life-or-death stress taking the 110 to the 105 competing with people who are late for their flight out of LAX.  But as long as I make a left at the Zankou chicken I'm good to go.

Though today I almost rear ended someone and cut off about 5 people.  I'm starting to miss my local street route at my old job full of potholes, buses and cars turning right from the middle lane... almost.

The biggest challenge I'm facing is the straight guy handshake.

My old job was dominated by fabulous.  Gay guys, lady friends.  Fierce and fun.  "hey girl hey" echoed down the halls and I ran the show with my sashay and obnoxious blurts of frustration and joy depending on the type of day I was having.  Replace that with fantasy football and girl talk and I have a new dynamic to adapt to.

How do gay guys greet each other?  Hugs.  We hug each other.  I just met you, and this is crazy, but we are homo... so let's hug it out baby.

How do straight guys do it?  It's a combination of some weird handshake, fist pound, hand slap followed by a pat on the back, ass squeeze if it's related to sports or snap/explosion to show how cool/in-the-know you are.

It's not that I'm not coordinated, it's just that I can't predict movements.   It's completely stressful.  And I stress bullets when I see someone come at me to say bye.  Fuuuuckk.. here it comes.  And when I successfully get it... there's a second level: how do I close it?    There have been so many situations where I inadvertently leave them hanging or I'm left hanging so I cover up by touching myself. (brush my hair or clap.  I think I clapped once.)

If my lack of girl talk, photo of Jimmy on my iPhone doesn't out me, my straight guy handshake fails will.  Though I think I have a solution: high fives.

See you next week.  "high five!"  That way it's one movement.  No follow-up and I'll come off as a very enthusiastic swim teacher.  I'll let you know how it goes, but I almost would rather be stuck in traffic than decode this straight guy language.  #gayguyproblems

....but if I ever get it right.  I'd be like this:

.....but this is more likely ... thanks for hiring me, my reports are done... have a good weekend.

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.

Food Porn - June 2012

My indulgence.

I write my restaurant experiences and opinions on Yelp! (Elite) Page.  Hee hee.  So my blog will be reserved for food pornography.

Son of a Gun - Lobster Roll

UMAMIcatessen - Umami Burger - Smushed Potatoes

UMAMIcatessen - P!gg - Pigg Style Fries

UMAMIcatessen -the Cure -  Pastrami, Rye, Mustard

UMAMIcatessen - "and A Donut - FG&J - Foie Gras Mousse, Forest Berry Jame, Peanut

Duck House - Peking Duck

Elephant Snack Corner - Bi Bim Naengmyeon .. Korean cold noodles that you can seriously choke on

Whipp'd LA -  World Famous Pineapple and Food Stompin Strawberry Dolewhip

The Park's Finest BBQ - Filipino Coconut Beef

Mexicali Taco & Co - Carne Asada Cachetada with Chipotle sauce

Ikea - Swedish Meatballs, Vegetarian Crepes, Cake

SummerTramp 2012

"The Anti-LA Pool Party."  The last Sunday of the month a bar parking lot is astro-turfed and adorned with pools, slides and DJs.  Tramps pour in.

900 free jello shots

Heineken Sponsored

Free Vitamin water and Monster

This event has exploded since the first event 3 years ago.  Lots of people are dressed to be seen.

We claimed a spot and stuck to it and enjoyed good people watching.  We're just normal sun soakers.  Fabulous photo booth.

The water slide is always fun.  It was a bit too slippery so we slipped right off of it.

Tommy found a duck to ride

They got creative with the porta potties.  Peep-a-boo said the power bottom.

As the party got crazy, we packed our bags.

We escorted ourselves out.  #shameless street strutting in a speedo.  But check out the back muscles on this pink short wonder.

Olympic Flame

It's been months since I've hosted a party and this passed/past Saturday was perfect for an Olympic theme!  We encouraged everyone to dress up and to my surprise most people participated.  Though I guess some folks cheated by just wearing gym clothes per my recommendation.

I got really creative with the decorations and I'm quite proud of myself for the innovation.  Though I was inspired by pinterest.  The party supply stores gave me nothing; it was the dollar stores that gave me the gold.

The Olympic rings hanging in the living room and in the photobooth are made from wreaths wrapped in streamers and hung from the ceiling with string.  I printed out flags and found medals as party favors.  I was also able to print out the official Olympic torch and added streamers to simulate fire.

I also turned the hallway into a faux swimming lane line by adding flags across the walls and blue lights along the floor.

The athletes that attended:

Marathon runners

Tennis Players

Boxers

Crazy Fans

Studly Wrestler

Gymnast

The IOC Chairman

Table Tennis

Soccer Player

Trampoline

Track People

Cyclist

Swimmers and Divers

"I was completely unprepared for the amount of bulges and camel toes I saw last night....thank you." commented one of the guests.  Yes,  Olympics or Gay Porn.

The party turned into a drink, chat and take hilarious photos sort of party ... wait I think that's the usual 321 formula.  Pretty good for planning this in one week.  One thing missing:  the Olympics playing on the TV.  We couldn't get our old TV Tube to work.  Almost.

Go for the GOLD!

Photo edits by my wrestler lover.