miscellany abounds

* not too long ago, i went to see "Shopgirl" at the movies. i really liked it a lot. i've read some bad reviews of it on different sites, etc., but i thought it was a very sweet (and sad) film. and there's nothing wrong with that. even jason schwartzman was good in it, and he usually drives me nuts.

LA is such a strange, semi-depressing, sprawling town.


* even more recently, i went to see "The Squid And The Whale". hmm... i don't really know what i thought about this one. i suppose that it was good in a few ways, but i had a hard time liking most of the characters:

the dad: a pretentious writer always acting more sophisticated than he probably is. even though there were moments where i really felt for him, someone should have told him that there are lots of ways to show people that you are smart without being a prick.

the older son: a mini version of his pops. (plus, he kept playing that same pink floyd song over and over again on guitar)

the younger son: he was my favorite part of the movie i guess. great at swearing. not so great at drinking.

the mom: she wasn't so bad, but still...


* parts of Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" are just incredible.


* i am getting soooo annoyed with politics these days. on both sides. people are way, way, way too reactionary. they behave like the audience on the Jerry Springer show sometimes.


* The Minutemen were called The Reactionaries at first.


* sometime last week, i went to see Jon Brion play at a club here. it was really something. people that live in Los Angeles should go watch him since he plays there pretty much every friday. i wasn't a big fan of his singing voice at first, but i warmed up to it. plus, watching someone play every instrument really, really well was fascinating.

i'm so mad at my parents for not making me take piano lessons.

you can watch a mostly terribly looking, but okay sounding video that i took here.


* i downloaded a little over half of John Peel's favorite 142 records the other day, and have been enjoying them quite a lot. but we all knew that he had good taste, so...


* i am working on a secret project.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN


this image is from my most favorite scary movie ever.

plus, i dressed up as a superhero this year.
it's a strange feeling to wear your underwear on the outside....

love is in the air?

no?
well something is...

visiting california - los angeles

so, after the big, long, fun drive down the coast, we made it to Los Angeles.

the first night there, we went to watch clay's band play in little tokyo. it was fun to watch him play drums again.

afterwards, we all went out in silverlake to a place called the short stop (i think). the strangest part of that was how many people from fargo i saw there. in that one small bar, there were like 15 people that i recognized. it was nice, but a bit deja-vu-y.


after a late night out, it was breakfast time. well, it's always breakfast time, but, you know...

clay took us to this funny hawaiian restaurant by his house. they had things like spam omelets with sprouts on them. oddly, everything was really good.

after eating, vince and aaron went off to watch the chicago white sox defeat the los angeles angels, while i went to the getty center with my friend emily.


it was a pretty amazing structure, but i think that my favorite part was the great view of LA that you could see from up there (it's built up on a hill).

while we were up there, the rain started. and stopped. and started. it would go on like this for the remainder of the vacation.


downtown.


that evening, i met up with clay and jake (another fellow that i knew from fargo) at this silly hip hotel called Standard.

we were going to meet a bunch of folks at the restaurant there, but we were pretty early so went went to have drinks on the roof.


in the elevator...


everything on the roof was funny. i don't remember seeing any chairs up there, only big couch-type things that you had to lay down on.


oh, and they also have big round waterbeds (cold waterbeds) inside of fiberglass onions that you can't really get comfortable on.

notice jake's $9 Heineken.


they also have a pool.


elliot in the lobby after dinner. he brought me a crazy dragon sculpture that he made. even though i can't quite figure out how it is going to fit into the decor of my apartment, he is the best.


on the way to this other bar called the golden gopher, this big catering truck went flying through an intersection and somehow managed to spill it's entire contents down onto the street.

we're talking beans, bananas, bread, and god knows what else, just covering the road.

within about one minute, there were homeless people racing towards it to grab whatever they could. it was crazy.


it was also on this night that we stopped off at del taco.



it was the first time that aaron, vince, or i had eaten there.

it was good.

apparently though, you can only say that if you are from out of town. anyone from LA who found out that we ate there was totally grossed out.

don't listen to them.

they are crazy.


clay's house is almost right next to what i think might be the los angeles river.

stunning.


the next day we just kind of wandered around town until we found our way to the Volcom store so that i could visit my cousin curtis.


we chatted and shopped a bit and then had coffee together.

it was good to see him.
(next time though, we are spending more time together.)


then it was off to the LACMA, mostly just to get out of the rain. i couldn't believe how crappy the weather was. it looks like we are in portland.


after driving around in the hollywood hills, we found our way to in-n-out burger.

i love love love this place.

the only problem was that we were going to meet up for sushi only two hours later.
it probably wasn't the best planning, but really, it was delicious.


clay, vince, tizzy, and friend (i forget her name)back in little tokyo for sushi. i have no idea why i ended up in this part of town so much on this trip either.

clay and vince both lived in japan for a while last year, so we just let them order everything. they did a great job.

then it was off to karaoke across the street...

clay got right down to business and sang the first song.


i was proud of him.


later, vince and i (and tizzy!) dueted on paul mccartney's "maybe i'm amazed".

it was truly something.


so, the next day was the last of our trip. emily called and wanted us to come to her neck of the woods to eat breakfast.

after a few wrong turns and some bad directions (sorry emily!), we finally made it to silverlake.


all of the u-turns and one near fatal crash ended up to be worth it. the food was great.


afterwards,sadly, it was time to split up from vince and aaron.

this was one of the most fun adventures that i have been on in a long while. i can't think of two other people who i would have rather had along.

thanks fellows...


before long, it was off to the lovely burbank airport. emily was nice enough to give me a ride.

my flight left at 8pm, getting me back to new york at 5am. i slept a bit on the plane, and then a couple of hours at home. then i was off to work.

it was pretty bizarre to be in los angeles one evening and then at my job on the other side of the continent at 9am the next day.

modern travel is confounding, but great.

oh, and guess what? yep, it has been raining EVERY day since i have been back. it's just unreal. the weatherman said that it's the wettest month that new york city has ever had.

yuck.

home run derby - san francisco
i know that this post is a bit out of chronological order, but i just got these pictures and i love them.
they were all taken by aaron.


one of my favorite moments during my first day in san francisco was playing home run derby in golden gate park.

it was a beautiful day and taking kids to the park is probably the most fun thing ever.


this is luca at bat.


she is going to be the female babe ruth when she grows up.
(i mean that in a good way)


here i am giving pointers out to ayla.


amal was a tough pitcher.

so tough in fact, that she could throw strikes while carrying a child.

awesome.

visiting california - big sur


it took about two hours to drive from san francisco to big sur, where we were planning to camp out for the night.

we got there after dark, so we had to set up the tents under the headlights of the cars.

i hadn't slept in a tent for probably 15 years, so i had a blast even though i didn't have a pillow or a sleeping mat.

the next morning, i awoke to the sounds of brian and amal's girls talking and laughing and singing. it was a really great way to wake up (even though it was before 7am).


big aaron was the last to arise.


he awoke just as we started breakfast: coffee, oatmeal, muffins, and chocolate melted on graham crackers.

it was all very tasty and fun. camping equipment has come a long way since i had seen it last.


here's b-ron doing some morning exercises.


and here's vince spinning ayla around. right after this, brian quickly scooped her up and began throwing her waaaay up in the air and catching her.

did i mention that she had just eaten a ton of oatmeal?


well, yeah...after all of that spinning and flying, as brian was holding her above his head, she suddenly threw up all over his face.

it was super hilarious. and pretty gross.

after breakfast, it was time to pack up the camp so that aaron, vince and i could make it to los angeles at a reasonable hour. brian and amal and kids were heading back up to san francisco.


on the way out of the campsite, i saw that our neighbor had his site decorated all cah-razy military style. there was a big american flag hanging from a tree, a sign that said "marine recon camp", and this creepy ass license plate decoration.

spooky...

anyways, we left the campgrounds and decided to try to go to the beach before we split up. we weren't able to find a way down to it, so we just pulled off onto the side of the road and took in the amazing, amazing scenery.

here's brian and i looking at the pacific ocean. about five minutes later, we started to see whales breaching down below us.

it was the greatest thing that i'd seen in a while.


after that, somehow we decided to have a rock throwing competition.
(we were trying to hit that sign across the road)

about three hundred rocks and a sore arm later, it was time to split up and move on...


first we had to pose for pictures.

i hope that it's not another 5 years before all four of us can get together again.


so on we went towards LA. we took the pacific coast highway the whole way.
with the top down of course.
it was the most zig-zaggy, up and down, incredibly beautiful road that i have ever seen.

the trip from big sur to LA took us about another 6 hours. it was slow, but totally worth it.


right before we got into los angeles, we started to play this game that vince invented called "The Ultimate Deceiver". it was pretty funny, though there was no clear winner. well, maybe vince won the most, but it was hardly a landslide victory.

anyways, finally we made it into the city. after a getting stuck on the infamous 405 for an eternity, we found ourselves in culver city, home of clay johnson.

there was a surprise in the form of elliot jackson waiting for us. elliot used to live in LA, but now he lives in philadelphia. he was in town by a magical coincidence.
this made me very happy.


here's our host for the last leg of our trip, the multi-talented, ruggedly handsome clay johnson!