B.L.O.G.
Big Load of Greenspan
Hollyween.
Halloween in Hollywood.
I went to a great Halloween party here. Halloween in L.A. feels a little different than in New York. Back home, folks just wear their costumes. Here, they become their costumes. Maybe it's because everyone out here's an actor. They're all so "method." For instance, on Halloween in NYC, a guy can come up to you all dressed up like Britney Spears and in a thick, tough-guy, New York accent tell ya "I'm Britney Fuckin Spears." But out here, on October 31st, that guy would BE Britney Spears. Voice. Walk. The works. Anyway, it makes for a fun party.
Halloween + L.A. got me thinking: this must be the one day of the year when mega-famous people can walk around the city without any problem. They just have to go out in costume. Tom Cruise could dress up like David Bowie, and no one would know. Cool.
The big fun for me on Halloween was going to the DEVO show at the Greek Theater. They were awesome! I've seen them a bunch of times and this was one of the longest and most varied sets I've had the pleasure to see. I was also fortunate enough to get backstage passes. That was another fun party.
After the show, I ran into a woman who also had an after-party wristband. She saw mine and asked where we were supposed to go. She looked awfully familiar...
ME: Hey, I think I know you. Did you ever work in NYC.
WOMAN: In NYC? You mean on a movie?
ME: No. At a radio station.
WOMAN: (seemingly offended) No.
I then realized she didn't work at 92.7 WDRE with me. She was Amy Heckerling, director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless, and other cool flicks. It's weird, sometimes you see people here and you think you know them from your own life, only to realize they're either famous, or kinda-famous. Here's a picture of Heckerling taken before I falsely recognized her:
Sorry to mention celebs again. I'm afraid I'll do it again, as they're Los Angeles' greatest natural resource.
I went to a great Halloween party here. Halloween in L.A. feels a little different than in New York. Back home, folks just wear their costumes. Here, they become their costumes. Maybe it's because everyone out here's an actor. They're all so "method." For instance, on Halloween in NYC, a guy can come up to you all dressed up like Britney Spears and in a thick, tough-guy, New York accent tell ya "I'm Britney Fuckin Spears." But out here, on October 31st, that guy would BE Britney Spears. Voice. Walk. The works. Anyway, it makes for a fun party.
Halloween + L.A. got me thinking: this must be the one day of the year when mega-famous people can walk around the city without any problem. They just have to go out in costume. Tom Cruise could dress up like David Bowie, and no one would know. Cool.
The big fun for me on Halloween was going to the DEVO show at the Greek Theater. They were awesome! I've seen them a bunch of times and this was one of the longest and most varied sets I've had the pleasure to see. I was also fortunate enough to get backstage passes. That was another fun party.
After the show, I ran into a woman who also had an after-party wristband. She saw mine and asked where we were supposed to go. She looked awfully familiar...
ME: Hey, I think I know you. Did you ever work in NYC.
WOMAN: In NYC? You mean on a movie?
ME: No. At a radio station.
WOMAN: (seemingly offended) No.
I then realized she didn't work at 92.7 WDRE with me. She was Amy Heckerling, director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless, and other cool flicks. It's weird, sometimes you see people here and you think you know them from your own life, only to realize they're either famous, or kinda-famous. Here's a picture of Heckerling taken before I falsely recognized her:
Sorry to mention celebs again. I'm afraid I'll do it again, as they're Los Angeles' greatest natural resource.
LA is like one big children's party where celebrities are the hired clowns.
People here seem to be all about enjoying life. It's refreshing. Especially compared to the day-to-day cynicism I experienced, and contributed to, in NYC. Granted, the majority of my time is spent where I work and live (the beach communities of Venice, Santa Monica, and Marina Del Rey) and the vibe in these coastal towns might be more laid back than in Hollywood.
To give you some idea of the culture shock - this is a place where folks send me emails telling me to be aware of an upcoming "cosmic trigger event" where "...an ultraviolet (UV) pulse beam radiating from higher dimensions in universe-2 will cross paths with the Earth." The email encourages one to go outside and bask in the beam so their positive thoughts will be manifested here in our dimension. The still-cynical New Yorker in me thinks it's just a government ploy to flatten out the population by giving us all cancer more quickly. Maybe this email was circulating on the east coast, but out here, they take it seriously.
I just passed my test to get a California state driver's license. You can't just hand in your NY license, you have to take a written test. I got down to the DMV, and it was all decked out for Halloween. Again, something you probably wouldn't see in NYC. Cute, but I don't think there's any point in trying to make the DMV any more scary than it is. There's also something a bit disconcerting about asking a woman behind a huge spider web for a DL-44 form.
A fun distraction here are the celebrities. Of course, there are many celebs in NYC, but out here it's like a famous-person-petting-zoo. They'll come right up and eat out of your hand if you stand still enough. I was out with some work friends and we ran into Deep Roy, the dwarf from the new Willy Wonka movie. Some of the people I was with had cast him in a commercial awhile back and offered to buy him a drink. He was too busy with the ladies and said "no thanks." You know your pecking order in LA when even the 4' 4" celebrities turn down your drink offer. Here's a pic of Deep Roy taken at some point before he snubbed us:
The next day, I was invited to Houstons for a birthday brunch for my friend Clint. Houstons, while being nice and classy, is a chain restaurant. In NYC, no one seems to go to chain restaurants. My friends and I would marvel at the tourists on line to get into the NYC Olive Garden. Who the fuck goes to New York and eats at the Olive Garden? But out here, there's no point in wasting precious sunny-time to go looking for some out of the way bistro, so Houstons it was. The food was actually great. Actor Owen Wilson was there. And Brian Setzer, from the Stray Cats, was at the next table. Houstons is hopping! After the birthday ice-cream arrived, Brian came over and wished Clint a happy birthday. It would have been cool if he sang it. Here is a picture of Brian Setzer taken at some point before he was chowing down at Houstons:
Clint scored tickets, and backstage passes, for the Ladytron show at the Ford Theater. It was a great show at a terrific outdoor venue. He got the passes because he produced the videos for the opening band, CSS. They're a fun-loving Brazilian group out of San Paulo. Their full name is Portuguese for "Tired of Being Sexy." I'm a new fan after seeing their show.
In other news, my PowerBook G4 has broken down so often that Apple has agreed to swap it out for the new MacBook Pro laptop. Whoo Hooo! Until it arrives, I imagine my blog posts will continue to be spotty.
I've been living in a Marriott hotel since I arrived. My stuff doesn't get here from NYC until February, so I found a sublet until then which starts in about a week. It's a guest cottage right on the Venice Canals. It's a beautiful area and I feel very lucky to be able to live there, even for a short while. Here's a picture of the Venice Canals taken at some point before I got my apartment there:
Not too shabby, huh? I'll post some pics of my own once I settle in. Off to Houstons. Bye.
To give you some idea of the culture shock - this is a place where folks send me emails telling me to be aware of an upcoming "cosmic trigger event" where "...an ultraviolet (UV) pulse beam radiating from higher dimensions in universe-2 will cross paths with the Earth." The email encourages one to go outside and bask in the beam so their positive thoughts will be manifested here in our dimension. The still-cynical New Yorker in me thinks it's just a government ploy to flatten out the population by giving us all cancer more quickly. Maybe this email was circulating on the east coast, but out here, they take it seriously.
I just passed my test to get a California state driver's license. You can't just hand in your NY license, you have to take a written test. I got down to the DMV, and it was all decked out for Halloween. Again, something you probably wouldn't see in NYC. Cute, but I don't think there's any point in trying to make the DMV any more scary than it is. There's also something a bit disconcerting about asking a woman behind a huge spider web for a DL-44 form.
A fun distraction here are the celebrities. Of course, there are many celebs in NYC, but out here it's like a famous-person-petting-zoo. They'll come right up and eat out of your hand if you stand still enough. I was out with some work friends and we ran into Deep Roy, the dwarf from the new Willy Wonka movie. Some of the people I was with had cast him in a commercial awhile back and offered to buy him a drink. He was too busy with the ladies and said "no thanks." You know your pecking order in LA when even the 4' 4" celebrities turn down your drink offer. Here's a pic of Deep Roy taken at some point before he snubbed us:
The next day, I was invited to Houstons for a birthday brunch for my friend Clint. Houstons, while being nice and classy, is a chain restaurant. In NYC, no one seems to go to chain restaurants. My friends and I would marvel at the tourists on line to get into the NYC Olive Garden. Who the fuck goes to New York and eats at the Olive Garden? But out here, there's no point in wasting precious sunny-time to go looking for some out of the way bistro, so Houstons it was. The food was actually great. Actor Owen Wilson was there. And Brian Setzer, from the Stray Cats, was at the next table. Houstons is hopping! After the birthday ice-cream arrived, Brian came over and wished Clint a happy birthday. It would have been cool if he sang it. Here is a picture of Brian Setzer taken at some point before he was chowing down at Houstons:
Clint scored tickets, and backstage passes, for the Ladytron show at the Ford Theater. It was a great show at a terrific outdoor venue. He got the passes because he produced the videos for the opening band, CSS. They're a fun-loving Brazilian group out of San Paulo. Their full name is Portuguese for "Tired of Being Sexy." I'm a new fan after seeing their show.
In other news, my PowerBook G4 has broken down so often that Apple has agreed to swap it out for the new MacBook Pro laptop. Whoo Hooo! Until it arrives, I imagine my blog posts will continue to be spotty.
I've been living in a Marriott hotel since I arrived. My stuff doesn't get here from NYC until February, so I found a sublet until then which starts in about a week. It's a guest cottage right on the Venice Canals. It's a beautiful area and I feel very lucky to be able to live there, even for a short while. Here's a picture of the Venice Canals taken at some point before I got my apartment there:
Not too shabby, huh? I'll post some pics of my own once I settle in. Off to Houstons. Bye.
Come on.
The Co-Chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children is caught sending sexually explicit instant messages to young male pages...
...and the House Majority Leader weighing in on the issue is named Boehner?
Who's writing this stuff?
...and the House Majority Leader weighing in on the issue is named Boehner?
Who's writing this stuff?
For previous entries, choose any month before
in the archive section. Go there now.
Archived Entries
May 2006June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
November 2007
December 2007
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
July 2008
August 2008
Song now playing on my iTunes
Subscribe
