chinese Theater
So where we last left our hero, He was getting his rental car and driving towards that inevitable traffic jam that is highway 5 to LA, on saturday 7 Aug 04 :

Pretty much my day started early, getting my rental car, and getting breakfast with my Uncle and Aunt. My rental car, a Luxourious Chevy Cavalier. Oh yeah riding in style. By 10am I was off onto “the 5″ headed north to LA. I called up Heidi and Chris to let them know i was incoming. The drive, was actually quite quick for three quarters of the trip. From Oceanside all of the way up to Anaheim, I hit no traffic. Then the traffic comes right after the Disneyland exit. I was headed to Burbank, where Chris lives, and pretty much had about 30 miles left to go. This next thirty miles took me the same time as the first 70.

Well enough about driving on to the events. I arrive at Chris’s apartment, of which was very easy to find (great directions thanks chris and heidi!). I was beat, from getting in late and driving. So i needed to sit down. So the beggining of my LA fun was a half nap on their couch, while we talked about stuff going on, and what we wanted to do for the weekend. All the time I’ve been amazed at how beautiful the weather was so far. Its that way everyday! god I’m so jealous.

My weekend goals were very general. I wanted to see LA in the way that LA people kinda like to go around and see it. I’m not big on tourist traps personally, its not my thing (ok i didn’t and couldn’t pass up the trip through hollywood! or seeing wierdos on venice beach). So first things first we went out to get something to eat at this cool restaurant named “Mo’s” down right near the Warner Brother’s studios lot.

Now on to Hollywood, just to say I did. We get to Hollywood finally. There was a bit of traffic getting down into the area where we needed to park, but overall I didn’t remember it being the worst traffic we saw that weekend (getting to Venice Beach took the cake on traffic). All in all hollywood was pretty interesting. We got to hit the walk, and go in some cheesy tourist shops. The highlight of the day of course was seeing the freaks dressed up in some sort of costume looking for tips for photos taken of them. There was this one guy especially, who was just freakin wierd. He really wasn’t a character from any sort of movie. He was just som e tall lanky, thin, black guy who had demon wings on and horns on his head. I believe he had some sort of contacts in and he walked as if he had goat legs. Lets see what else. I think he may have had a tail. The rest of his costume was pretty much straps. Pretty S&M I guess. Guy was freaky. Though for some reason his voice did not match his costume at all, he was doing a voice of sorts (not just speaking like a normal guy), but I just didn’t think it matched at all. After seeing the globe-trotters hollywood walk star we all decided to kick it out of this overly crowded nutzoid place.

Up next on the agenda was going to see Ameoba Records. I have to say, thats a pretty badass record store. I want one of my own. Not much else to say, it wasn’t anything really revolutionary. It was just good. I probably could have bought a bunch of stuff, but I didn’t really wanna have to deal with extra stuff to bring back with me on the plane. Then we moved on to going to see Garden State. This movie i guess is old news by the time I’m getting around to telling my story, but i think it was still only in 4 theaters across the country when we saw it. I loved it. I Highly reccomend it. Its got Natalie Portman being ever so cute, and Zach Braff, of Scrubs fame. Braff also wrote and directed the movie. Great first time out for the man. It was just one of those movies I knew I was going to buy on DVD as soon as i stepped out of the theater.

Wow, this all only covers 1 day. Damn.. i still got a whole week of stuff to tell people about. I’ve pretty much told the major points to most people who would care, but I’m determined to get this stuff down. I will push forward!!

Day 2: LA consisted of Food, ice cream, a bookstore trip, and then on to Venice Beach to see all the crazies. Quick synopsis of Venice Beach… the people were crazy ;). We saw some people doing rollerskate dancing. That was pretty trippy. Its like they never left the 70’s. I mean wow. To top off the venice beach trip we saw a crazy street performer balance a girl on a chair on his chin. That was pretty damn cool. He also ate fire and pretty much did what you’d think a sideshow act type would do. A true carney.

To finish up my time in LA, we went out to Noodle World (i think that was the name) for some awesome oriental noodle dishes. I mean seriously the best I’ve had anywhere, and then headed out to do some Karaoke at this place that Chris and Heidi frequent in LA. Karaoke I have to say was the highlight of the weekend. Nothing better than getting drunk and singing. Yes I did sing. In fact I sang “Hell” from the Squirrel Nut Zippers. I had a blast, and I think I did it pretty well. Apparrantly I was pretty popular .. girls and guys alike. I had to fend off some propositioning later, but hey all in a days work. I can’t help that I’m so damn good looking.

I guess thats about it for LA. I headed back down to Oceanside the next morning after goodbyes to Heidi and Chris. (You guys rock!) I’m so in their debt for their gracious hospitality during my stay in LA.